Trump Says He Will Block Coronavirus Aid for US Postal Service if It Doesn't Hike Prices Immediately

By Lisa Rein and Jacob Bogage, The Washington Post

24 April 20

The president said the postal agency should quadruple its package delivery prices and said he will stop congressionally approved funding

resident Trump on Friday said he would not be approving an emergency loan for the U.S. Postal Service if it did not immediately raise its prices for package delivery, confirming a recent Washington Post article that said he planned to exert more control over the agency.

“The Post Office is a joke," Trump told reporters. "The Post Office should raise the price [of package delivery] four times.”

Trump recently signed a law that allowed the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service to borrow $10 billion from the Treasury Department. The Post has reported that the White House wants to force changes at USPS as part of the terms of the loan. Trump confirmed on Friday that one of those new conditions is a requirement that the Postal Service raise prices.

“If they don’t raise the price, I’m not signing anything.”

He said that he won’t allow Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to approve the loan if prices aren’t raised.

Trump has railed for years against what he sees as mismanagement at the Postal Service, which has been battered by a decline in first-class mail in the Internet age – but which has found profitability with package delivery. The agency’s revenues have plunged about 30 percent during the pandemic, though, as business mail has declined.

Trump and his allies have frequently claimed that higher package rates on Internet shipping companies — Amazon, in particular — could ease the Postal Service’s financial troubles. But higher package rates could hurt the agency by artificially raising its prices above those of United Parcel Service and FedEx, analysts say. Higher prices also could impact Amazon, which acts as both retailer and shipper, by forcing it pass off higher costs on its customers to compete.

The Postal Service repeatedly has defended its arrangement with the e-commerce giant, saying it gets fair rates for the services it provides in a highly competitive environment.