USPS’s Louis DeJoy Resigns as Banks “Salivate” Over Musk Goal of Privatization

The embattled head of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Louis DeJoy abruptly resigned from his position as postmaster on Monday — just weeks after Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) paid a visit to the agency to force it to adopt agency-shrinking measures.

In a statement, DeJoy did not give a reason for his resignation. He handed the job to Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino as an interim measure while the postal board chooses a permanent successor.

“I am confident that Doug will continue our positive momentum,” DeJoy said. “I also have no doubt that the entirety of the Postal Service will aggressively shape its future and become more efficient, capable and competitive as it continuously changes and improves to best serve the American public.”

Earlier this month, Musk told attendees at a Morgan Stanley conference that the federal government should privatize the USPS. President Donald Trump has expressed support for the idea.

On the surface, DeJoy and Musk seem to have shared goals: to make widespread cuts to spending at government agencies, in this case USPS, to make them more supposedly “efficient” while, in actuality, eroding a public service. However, Musk and Trump seem to have forced DeJoy out anyway.

The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) said that DeJoy was just one cut on the way to privatization.

“Make no mistake, Louis DeJoy was forced out by a presidential administration that is intent on breaking up and selling off the public Postal Service. Reports from last month made clear that the White House has plans for a hostile takeover of the Postal Service,” said APWU President Mark Dimondstein in a statement.

“As I said then, any attack on the Postal Service is part of the ongoing oligarchs’ coup against the vital public services our members and other public servants provide the country. We know that privatized postal services will lead to higher postage prices, and lower service quality to the public,” Dimondstein went on. “No matter who leads the USPS, it is — and must remain — the People’s Postal Service.”

USPS employees, experts and advocacy groups say that this would be disastrous for the American shipping and mail system, as well as the American public.

Banks are “salivat[ing]” over the idea to “ransack” mail service, as watchdog Revolving Door Project wrote in an analysis of a Wells Fargo proposal for privatization this month. Per the analysis, privatization would raise postage prices, potentially doubling them, while also leading to mass layoffs. These layoffs could drastically reduce the number of unionized employees in the U.S., as 91 percent of USPS’s 640,000 employees are unionized.

At the same time, mail service itself would be compromised, as private companies aren’t beholden to the USPS’s mandate to ensure that every domestic address can be reached by reasonably priced services — potentially cutting off rural communities from being able to access mail service for crucial things like medication or ballots.

“If they follow through on privatization threats, Musk and Trump will be attacking an American institution older than the country itself and one of the few agencies explicitly authorized by the Constitution,” Revolving Door Project said.

DeJoy, a top Republican fundraiser and donor, took the helm at USPS in 2020 after being elected by the majority-conservative postal board.

He immediately embarked on a deeply unpopular plan to slash the postal service to run it more like a business — despite USPS existing as a public service, and not a pathway for profits — ahead of the 2020 election, in which mail service was critical as the COVID-19 pandemic caused a surge of demand for mail-in ballots. Since then, four years into DeJoy’s 10-year plan, there have been signs of major delays in mail delivery across the country.

DeJoy had announced that he was stepping down last month, but the resignation on Monday was relatively abrupt. Musk’s DOGE cronies had demanded widespread access to the agency’s technology and systems. DeJoy reportedly refused, as The Washington Post reports, and DOGE workers went on to demand that the USPS bypass Congress to make changes to the service.

Earlier this month, DeJoy announced plans to cut 10,000 USPS workers and slash $3.5 billion from its operating costs, in compliance with Donald Trump and Musk’s plan for mass government layoffs that have been, in some places, ruled likely illegal.

Meanwhile, in recent days, the Trump administration has reportedly been meeting with Jim Cochrane, the head of a trade association representing private shipping companies like Amazon, DHL and FedEx, The Washington Post reports.