President Donald Trump's Monday morning "chopper talk" before leaving for a campaign rally, revealed that the president thinks he's "fixing" the USPS by removing sorting machines that have slowed down the mail.
"We want to make sure that the post office runs properly, and it hasn't run properly for many years," said Trump. "Probably 50 years it's run very badly. We want to make sure that the post office runs properly and doesn't lose billions of dollars. Somebody said it lost $78 billion over a relatively short period of time. that's over the years. $78 billion. You can't have that, no."
The USPS lost $2.2 billion last year, but the free cash flow was positive according to Barrons. It lost $4 billion in 2018. So it's unclear how many "years" Trump is using to get to his $78 billion number and it's possible he's making it up.
After 50 years, several sorting machines were taken offline by Trump's postmaster general and as a result, mail has been severely delayed for the first time. After the move by Trump's officials, checks for the elderly, prescriptions for veterans and other critical equipment has been delayed as much as two to three weeks.
"The post office is running very well. The post office -- now, look, if you look at the post office, for years, that's all people complained about," claimed Trump when asked another question about it. "We're going to run it well, and we're going to not lose so much money. One of the things the post office loses so much money on is delivering packages for Amazon and these others. Every time they deliver a package, they probably lose $3 or $4. That's not good. They have to raise those prices. Okay? Not for the people to pay but for Amazon and the companies to pay."
He was then asked if the postmaster general is enacting a plan to intentionally slow the mail for ballot access.
"Not at all. Wouldn't do that. No, I have encouraged everybody to speed up the mail, not slow the mail. I also want to have a post office that runs without losing billions and billions of dollars a year, as it has been doing for 50 years. Thank you," Trump said and then walked away.
"How can you speed up the mail by removing machines, Mr. President?" one reporter could be heard shouting.
See the video below: