Postmaster General Louis DeJoy resigns after 5 years in the position
[March 25, 2025]
By LISA BAUMANN
The head of the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service, Louis DeJoy, resigned
Monday after nearly five years in the position, leaving as President
Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have
floated the idea of privatizing mail service.
DeJoy had said last month he planned to step down but hadn’t set a date.
He leaves an agency with an uncertain future. Trump has said he is
considering putting USPS under the control of the Commerce Department in
an attempt to stop losses at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has
operated as an independent entity since 1970. It has struggled at times
to balance the books with the decline of first-class mail.
Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino will take on the role until the
Postal Service Board of Governors names a permanent replacement for
DeJoy, who became postmaster general in the summer of 2020 during
Trump’s first term. He was a Republican donor who owned a logistics
business and was the first person to hold the position in nearly two
decades who was not a career postal employee.
DeJoy’s tenure was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, surges in mail-in
election ballots and efforts to stem losses through cost and service
cuts.
“I believe strongly that the organization is well positioned and capable
of carrying forward and fully implementing the many strategies and
initiatives that comprise our transformation and modernization, and I
have been working closely with the Deputy Postmaster General to prepare
for this transition, DeJoy said in a statement.
He added that “much work remains that is necessary to sustain our
positive trajectory.”
The National Association of Letter Carriers' president, Brian L. Renfroe,
said in a statement Monday that the union stands ready to work with
whomever the board selects as the next postmaster general.
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Postmaster General of the United States Louis DeJoy speaks during a
news conference, Dec. 20, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis
Magana, File)
“The future of the Postal Service is on the line, and choosing
someone with innovative ideas and appreciation for our
Constitutionally mandated service is essential,” Renfroe said.
The Postal Service Board of Governors said in a statement Monday
evening that they had retained global search firm Egon Zehnder to
help find the agency's next leader. There's no established timeline
for when the announcement of the next postmaster general will be
made, the statement said.
Earlier this month, DeJoy said he planned to cut 10,000 workers and
billions of dollars from the USPS budget and he’d do that working
with DOGE, according to a letter sent to members of Congress.
USPS workers, including mail carriers, have gathered over the past
week to protest the cuts and the plan they say will dismantle the
service.
Critics of the plan fear negative effects of the cuts will be felt
across the country. Democratic U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly, of
Virginia, has said in response that turning over the service to DOGE
would result in it being undermined and privatized.
USPS employs about 640,000 workers who deliver mail, medicine,
election ballots and packages across the country, from inner cities
to rural areas and far-flung islands.
The USPS has been largely self-funded since 1970. The bulk of its
annual $78.5 billion budget comes from customer fees, according to
the Congressional Research Service. Congress provides a relatively
small annual appropriation — about $50 million in fiscal year 2023 —
to subsidize free and reduced-cost mail services.
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