Trump administration considering moving U.S. Postal Service under Commerce Department

The Trump administration is considering moving the U.S. Postal Service, an independent federal agency, under the Commerce Department, two sources tell CBS News. 

The Commerce Department is headed by Howard Lutnick, a billionaire and close Trump ally. The change, should it take place, would occur through an executive action, the sources said. Mr. Trump commented on the possibility during Lutnick’s swearing in ceremony at the White House Friday. 

“We want to have a Post Office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money, and we’re thinking about doing that, and it’ll be a form of a merger, but it’ll remain the Postal Service, and I think it’ll operate a lot better than it has been over the years,” he told reporters. 

The Washington Post first reported the Trump administration is considering the move. 

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a prominent Trump fundraiser who was appointed to the post during Mr. Trump’s first administration, announced earlier this week that he’s resigning. He didn’t say when he plans to depart. 

Under DeJoy’s original plan, introduced in 2021, the USPS aimed to turn a profit in fiscal 2024 but instead reported two consecutive years of increasing losses. 

“The president, for some very good reasons, isn’t happy with the postmaster general,” said Paul Steidler, a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute and an expert on the Postal Service. “Its service has massively deteriorated, it has raised rates significantly above the rate of inflation, and its losses have become continuously worse, and they will run out of cash at some point in the next four years, during the time over which Trump is in his second term.”

“The president by law can’t fire the postmaster general, but he can, for cause, fire the governors who have the authority to fire the postmaster general,” he added.

“You could maybe make an argument for supervisory role” of the Commerce Department over the USPS, he said. “To do it permanently would probably require legislation.”

“A very strong case can be made, and I believe it to be the case, that the board has been derelict in its duty,” Steidler said.

The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775, with Benjamin Franklin serving as the first postmaster general. As an independent agency, the Postal Service is run by the USPS Board of Governors, which includes the postmaster general and a deputy postmaster general. 

contributed to this report.

Ed O’Keefe

Ed O’Keefe is CBS News senior White House and political correspondent. He previously worked for The Washington Post covering presidential campaigns, Congress and federal agencies. His primary focus is on President Biden, Vice President Harris and political issues across the country.