U.S. postmaster general Louis DeJoy has resigned from his position earlier than expected after reportedly refusing to give Elon Musk’s DOGE broad access to agency computer systems.
DeJoy, a former logistics magnate and Republican donor appointed by Donald Trump himself during the chaotic summer of 2020, announced last month that he would resign once the USPS’s independent board of governors had chosen a successor.
Instead, he said on Monday that he would leave at the end of the day and be replaced by deputy postmaster Doug Tulino on an interim basis.
The news came after Trump threatened to dissolve the USPS board in apparent contravention of U.S. law, which guarantees its independence and bipartisan governance.
Inside sources told The Washington Post that DeJoy had fallen out of favor with the president after clashing with DOGE operatives over the extent of their access, and insisting that any major changes go through Congress.
“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,” said DeJoy in a statement on Monday.
“While our management team, and the men and women of the Postal Service, have established the path toward financial sustainability and high operating performance — and we have instituted enormous beneficial change to what had been an adrift and moribund organization – much work remains that is necessary to sustain our positive trajectory.
“It has been one of the pleasures of my life, and a crowning achievement of my career, to have been associated with this cherished institution.”
USPS board chairwoman Amber McReynolds lauded DeJoy as “a fighter” who had made “tireless efforts” to modernize the service and “reverse decades of neglect”.
The agency had previously agreed with DOGE to cut its 635,000-strong workforce by 10,000 within the next 30 days, on top of the 30,000 jobs it has already nixed since the 2021 fiscal year.
DeJoy became the nation’s 75th postmaster general — a job first occupied by none other than Benjamin Franklin — in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, amid tensions over the role of mail-in voting in that November’s presidential election.
As the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who was not a career postal employee, he developed a 10-year plan to modernize operations and stem losses, telling customers to prepare for “uncomfortable” rate hikes in pursuit of agency self-sufficiency.
With Trump continually spreading conspiracy theories about mail-in voting — allegedly as part of a plot to overturn the election result if he lost — critics feared that DeJoy’s policies would make it harder to vote by mail, and one of his cost-cutting practices was blocked by a court for that reason.
The fate of the USPS now seems unclear, given that Trump has mused publicly about privatizing the agency.
In February, the Post reported that Trump was planning to try and end USPS independence by executive fiat. The board made preparations to fight in court, and a White House spokesperson later denied any such plans.
