There was an opportunity before email took over the world.
Shortly after he was reelected president, Donald Trump let it be known he wanted to privatize the US Postal Service. “Not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” he said at a news conference in December, mugging for the cameras as if only a fool could disagree. He seems serious about it, too. As Bloomberg reported this month, Elon Musk’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency has struck a deal with the USPS to look for places to nip and tuck and presumably do quite a bit more given Musk’s shared passion for privatization.
They may have more trouble than they imagine, but not because of questions about DOGE’s authority or the reason their critics usually cite, namely that the post office is a national treasure that must remain in the hands of the people. When it comes to privatizing the USPS, Musk and Trump are a quarter century too late.
