President Donald Trump has long taken issue with the U.S. Postal Service, but now he’s doing something about it.
In an executive order issued just shy of 9 p.m. last night, Trump demanded a review of the Post Office’s finances. “A number of factors, including the steep decline in First-Class Mail volume, coupled with legal mandates that compel the U.S.P.S. to incur substantial and inflexible costs, have resulted in a structural deficit,” Trump stated in the order. “The U.S.P.S. is on an unsustainable financial path and must be restructured to prevent a taxpayer-funded bailout.”
It’s a decision that came after the president’s renewed attack on Amazon on March 31 when he tweeted: “It is reported that the U.S. Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon. That amounts to Billions of Dollars.”
The U.S. Postal Service is just one of many in a long list of entities that have found themselves in the center of Trump’s Twitter storms. In December, he called the Post Office “dumber and poorer” for being on the losing end of a financial arrangement with Amazon, questioning why it doesn’t charge more for its services (Trump’s attacks on the USPS date as far back as 2013).
Watch on FN
While Amazon is never specified in the order, insiders suggest Trump hopes that the task force’s findings of the Postal Service will confirm his longtime suspicions — that the e-tail giant is taking advantage of the USPS.
Some insiders have suggested Trump’s issues with Amazon lie with his personal dislike for owner Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, a news outlet that the president has accused of publishing articles that have painted him in an unfavorable light.
Want more?
Trump Attacks Amazon Again: A History of the President’s Feud With the Retail Giant
Trump Reportedly Mulling Ways to ‘Go After’ Amazon With Tax Laws, Stock Plummets
LeBron James Takes a Dig at Donald Trump With Black & White ‘Equality’ Sneakers
