Trump launches task force to evaluate Postal Service operations

President Trump announced Thursday he is forming a task force to look at the viability and operations of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) on the heels of his tweets accusing Amazon of hurting the organization.

Trump said in an executive order that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would chair the panel, which will assess how the Postal Service is affected by the package delivery market and declining use of mail, as well as examine its business model and role in the U.S. economy.

“The USPS is on an unstable financial path and must be restructured to prevent a taxpayer-funded bailout,” the president said in the executive order released by the White House.

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Trump’s order directs Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s office to advise the task force on the issue of commercial monopolies in the delivery sector.

The task force is expected to deliver recommendations within 120 days on how to reform the USPS “without shifting additional costs to taxpayers,” according to the executive order.

The formation of the panel follows a string of tweets Trump fired off over the course of several days earlier this month accusing Amazon of costing the Postal Service “billions.”

Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon. THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed. Also, our fully tax paying retailers are closing stores all over the country…not a level playing field!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2018

When fact-checkers argued that was not the case, Trump doubled down on his attacks, repeating that the Postal Service was losing “a fortune” because of Amazon.

The USPS does give Amazon a shipping discount because of the volume of packages it ships. However, fact-checkers have disputed Trump’s argument that Amazon is hurting the Postal Service, saying that the USPS’s lack of profitability goes beyond its relationship with Amazon.