With a pandemic and election at the forefront, Trump focused on Amazon, and DeJoy on long-term problems.
pandemic was forcing widespread absenteeism among his 200,000 members. Protective gear was running low. The post office needed a plan to handle a historic crush of mail-in ballots.
A longtime logistics executive and GOP fundraiser, DeJoy was hired after a methodical campaign by Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to ensure a Republican takeover of the agency’s Board of Governors, depleted for years and with no members when Trump took office.
DeJoy came under mounting scrutiny, facing calls for investigations and demands for his resignation. He was summoned before Congress. He came in “like a bull in a china shop,” and said he was going to make the Postal Service profitable and didn’t care what criticism he took, a person who spoke with him recalled.
“We are not self-sustaining,” DeJoy told lawmakers. “One thing that’s not in the plan is not doing anything after the election.” Bipartisan proposals for reform, which include service cuts and debt forgiveness, have stagnated for years, driven by sensitivities to politically powerful postal unions, lawmakers representing rural areas, and large mailers wary of price increases.
“Like any responsible creditor, the Secretary takes seriously his responsibilities for sound stewardship of the taxpayer dollars [Treasury] has lent to the USPS,” a statement said.By last fall, Mnuchin had successfully reshaped the board, with four Republicans and two Democrats, and Brennan announced her retirement. She planned to step down by the end of January 2020.
But by May, its financial outlook had improved, buoyed by a growing package volume as Americans ordered supplies online. “His rigorous approach to restructuring became very combustible,” said Paul Steidler, a postal expert at the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank. In parts of Philadelphia, Detroit and Los Angeles, among other cities, customers have gone without mail for days — sometimes weeks — at a time, the workers say.“We voiced our vehement opposition to the cuts,” the union leader recalled. “Did he listen to me? He didn’t throw me out of his office.” After the meeting, “our fundamental concerns had not changed,” he added.
At one point, Trump said he didn’t want to give more money to the Postal Service to starve it of resources to deliver all ballots. DeJoy also met with Trump in the Oval Office. That inflamed Democrats and watchdog groups suspicious that the president and a top political ally might be trying to undermine the election.
The board, which had met only once a month, began holding daily conference calls, concerned that the Postal Service was being dragged into an escalating partisan fight.
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