President Donald Trump continued his criticism of the postal service on Friday at the White House, calling it a “joke.”
“The Postal Service is a joke because they’re handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies, and every time they put out a package, they lose money on it,” Trump said.
The president commented on the postal service after reporters asked him at the White House about a possible bailout.
He argued that the postal service should raise their prices to help get them out of debt.
“The Post Office – if they raise the price of the package by approximately four times – it’d be a whole new ballgame,” Trump said. “But they don’t want to raise because they don’t want to insult Amazon.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that over $10 billion was authorized for a Postal Service loan in the coronavirus emergency rescue funding CARES act, but that the administration was demanding reform.
“We are going to put certain criteria for a postal reform program as part of the loan, and we’re [looking] forward to — the board is recruiting a new postmaster general and doing postal reform,” he said.
Trump said if the postal service did not raise their package prices, he would not authorize any aid.
“If they don’t raise the price, I’m not signing anything … I’m not authorizing you to do anything,” he said to Mnuchin.
Trump’s frustration with the postal service is longstanding.
Earlier in his presidency, Trump created a task force to make recommendations for the future of the Postal Service, which is over $160 billion in debt. In 2018, the task force recommended that the Postal Service should increase shipping costs for commercial packages.