President Trump is making plans to disband the governing board that oversees the U.S. Postal Service and absorb the agency into his administration, throwing the future of the mail provider’s quasigovernmental status into doubt.
Trump is preparing to issue an executive order, possibly this week, to fire the members of the Postal Service’s governing board and put the agency under the direct control of the Commerce Department, according to two government officials. The plan was earlier reported by the Washington Post late Thursday.
The Postal Service board is expected to fight the move and is exploring legal action, one official said. It couldn’t be determined whether the board would be able to stop the order because its members are appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the Senate.
The plans renew questions over the future of the 250-year-old Postal Service. In December, Trump, when he was then president-elect, said at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida that he was thinking about privatizing the agency, a move he frequently pushed for during his first term.
This week, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he would step down after five years into a 10-year term. According to two officials, the Trump White House had been considering replacing DeJoy, a former logistics executive who was appointed during Trump’s first term in 2020.
A White House official denied that such an order was in the works. The Postal Service declined to comment, and the secretary to the governing board didn’t respond to a request for comment.