August 17, 2020

A Brief History of Why Donald Trump Hates the Postal Service

Andrej Sokolow/DPA via ZUMA

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Some of you may be wondering why President Trump seems to have it in for the Postal Service. It’s a short story:

  • Trump hates the Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos.
  • Trump tweeted about this once and Bezos responded with a joke. Trump can’t stand jokes at his expense, so he hates Bezos.
  • Bezos is CEO of Amazon, therefore Trump hates Amazon.
  • The Postal Service delivers some of Amazon’s packages. As a matter of revenge, Trump wants them to raise the rates they charge Amazon.
  • They have refused to do so, therefore Trump hates the Postal Service.

Believe it or not, that’s all there is to it. Trump has been waiting five years for an opportunity to take revenge on the Postal Service, and the current ruckus over vote-by-mail has given him his chance. He’s pretending that it’s all about ballot fraud and inefficient management and so forth, but it’s really about the fact that Bezos—who is considerably richer than Trump—once made a modest joke about Trump and the Postal Service got caught in the crossfire.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that’s how the United States of America is governed these days.

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