Interference with the United States Postal Service: DeJoy Appointment, Mail Sorting Machine Removal, and Suppression of Mail-In Voting Infrastructure Before the 2020 Election
Tier 3Documented2020-05-06 to 2020-11-03
Factual Summary
In the months before the November 2020 presidential election, the Trump administration took a series of actions that degraded the operational capacity of the United States Postal Service during a period when millions of Americans were expected to vote by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These actions were accompanied by explicit public statements from President Trump connecting USPS funding to his opposition to mail-in voting.
On May 6, 2020, the USPS Board of Governors, composed entirely of Trump appointees, selected Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General. DeJoy was a major Republican donor who had contributed more than $2.7 million to Trump and Republican causes. He had no prior experience working for the Postal Service. He was the first Postmaster General in nearly two decades to come from outside the agency.
After taking office in June 2020, DeJoy implemented a series of operational changes that slowed mail delivery nationwide. He eliminated overtime for mail carriers, imposed restrictions on extra trips to deliver mail, and restructured management at the agency. Most significantly, more than 600 high-speed mail sorting machines were slated for removal from postal facilities across the country. These machines could process up to 36,000 pieces of mail per hour. By the time DeJoy announced a pause on the removals in August 2020, postal union leaders reported that most of the targeted machines had already been dismantled. DeJoy subsequently testified before Congress that the machines could not be reassembled, stating that in some cases they had been destroyed.
President Trump made his intentions explicit in public statements. In an August 13, 2020, interview on Fox Business Network, Trump stated that he was blocking $25 billion in emergency USPS funding and $3.5 billion in election-related mail funding because "they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots." Trump had also repeatedly attacked mail-in voting as fraudulent, despite studies showing that fraud in mail-in voting is exceedingly rare.
The operational changes produced immediate, measurable effects. On-time mail delivery rates dropped significantly during the summer of 2020. Members of Congress from both parties reported constituent complaints about delayed mail, including delayed prescription medications and late bill deliveries. The USPS Inspector General opened an investigation into the changes.
Congressional investigations followed. DeJoy testified before the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee in August 2020. During testimony, DeJoy acknowledged that he had not conducted any analysis of how the operational changes would affect election mail. He stated he would suspend the changes until after the election but confirmed the removed sorting machines would not be reinstalled.
Multiple states and advocacy groups filed lawsuits seeking to block the USPS changes. A federal judge in Washington state issued an injunction ordering the Postal Service to reverse the operational changes, calling them "a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service" before the election. Additional injunctions were issued in other jurisdictions.
Primary Sources
1. USPS Board of Governors announcement of Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General, May 6, 2020
2. Trump interview on Fox Business Network stating opposition to USPS funding to prevent mail-in voting, August 13, 2020
3. Louis DeJoy testimony before the House Oversight Committee, August 24, 2020
4. Louis DeJoy testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, August 21, 2020
5. USPS Inspector General reports on operational changes and mail delivery performance, 2020
6. Federal court injunctions ordering reversal of USPS operational changes
Corroborating Sources
1. CNBC: "USPS chief Louis DeJoy says there's 'no intention to' bring back removed mail-sorting machines," August 21, 2020
2. Washington Post: "Why the Postal Service wanted to remove hundreds of mail-sorting machines," August 20, 2020
3. NBC News: "Despite DeJoy's vows to halt changes, serious problems persist, postal workers say," September 2020
4. Bloomberg: "DeJoy Tells Judge Mail-Sorting Machines Can't Be Reassembled," September 24, 2020
5. Center for Public Integrity: "Trump campaign still hasn't paid El Paso police bills," August 2020
Counterarguments and Context
DeJoy and the USPS Board of Governors argued that the operational changes were part of a long-planned effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency at an agency that had been losing money for years. They noted that mail sorting machine removals had occurred under prior administrations as first-class mail volumes declined. DeJoy stated that the changes were not politically motivated and that he was committed to ensuring election mail was delivered on time. The USPS ultimately processed the vast majority of mail-in ballots successfully in the November 2020 election, a fact cited by defenders as evidence that the concerns were overblown. Supporters also argued that the lawsuits and congressional investigations were themselves politically motivated efforts to embarrass the administration before the election. Critics responded that Trump's own public statements explicitly connected USPS funding to his desire to prevent mail-in voting, that the timing of the changes immediately before a presidential election during a pandemic was not coincidental, and that the removal and destruction of sorting machines was irreversible, representing permanent degradation of postal infrastructure. The fact that the USPS ultimately delivered most ballots successfully was attributed by critics to the court injunctions, congressional pressure, and extraordinary efforts by postal workers rather than to any intention by DeJoy or the administration.
Author's Note
This entry is classified as Tier 3 because the interference is documented through primary evidence, including Trump's own on-camera statement connecting USPS funding to mail-in voting, DeJoy's sworn congressional testimony, USPS Inspector General reports, federal court findings, and the documented removal and destruction of mail sorting machines. The president's explicit statement of intent, linking USPS funding to his opposition to mail-in ballots, is the most direct evidence that the operational changes served a political purpose.