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Trump Holds U.S. Postal Service Hostage to Get Revenge on Jeff Bezos

Donald Trump won't give the U.S. Postal Service a loan unless they raise prices on Amazon, thereby striking a blow to one of Trump's biggest enemies: Jeff Bezos.

  • On Friday, Donald Trump said he wouldn’t give the U.S. Postal Service a $10 billion loan if they didn’t raise prices on Amazon.
  • Shortly after, he tweeted that he wouldn’t let the Post Office fail.
  • Trump has done nothing to help the USPS, and now he’s just using them to punish his enemy, Jeff Bezos.

Donald Trump is ramping up his vendetta campaign against Jeff Bezos. The former reality TV star is a dangling $10 billion loan above the struggling U.S. Postal Service.

It’s theirs if they just do what Trump wants: raise their prices on Amazon.

Trump Is Just Teasing the U.S. Postal Service

Trump recently signed a law that would allow the struggling institution to borrow $10 billion from the Treasury Department. On Friday, he clarified some of the stipulations of the loan, saying, “if they don’t raise the price, I’m not signing anything.”

Trump continued,

The Postal Service is a joke because they’re handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies and every time they bring a package, they lose money on it.

The problem is that even if Trump got his vengeance against Jeff Bezos & Amazon and the USPS did raise prices, it might not solve the problem. If they raised rates too high, Amazon could ditch them altogether.

Source: Twitter

This would leave the U.S. Postal Service in an even more dire financial predicament. Not only that, but the service would likely become more expensive for consumers.

Former Army Secretary John McHugh, chairman of the Package Coalition advocacy group, said in a statement:

Now, when Americans need affordable and reliable package delivery service more than ever, Congress must fight to guarantee emergency relief for the Postal Service and stop this package tax.

The Main Priority Is Not to Help the USPS; It’s to Hurt Jeff Bezos

Trump is not a fan of Jeff Bezos. He’s been trying to get the USPS to raise their prices on Amazon for years.

Trump was pushing his anti-Amazon agenda in 2017. | Source: Twitter

In February, Jeff Bezos claimed Trump had an agenda against him, which is why Amazon lost a $10 billion cloud-computing contract with the Pentagon.

Much of his ire is likely because Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, a publication that’s been highly critical of the bumbling president. Trump has even gone so far as to take personal jabs at Bezos while he was going through a divorce.

We all know that Donald Trump will go to extremes to try to win a grudge. It’s likely the main reason he ran for president in the first place.

Coercing the U.S. Postal Service to punish Jeff Bezos is just another day in the Oval Office.

Trump Does Not Care About the U.S. Postal Service

On Friday, Trump tweeted that he would “never let our Post Office fail.”

Prove it. | Source: Twitter

If that were true, then why did he refuse to bail them out? Trump threatened to veto the $2 trillion CARE Act if any money was sent to the U.S. Postal Service.

The agency initially requested $75 billion in financial relief due to coronavirus, which Trump swiftly denied. Now, he won’t even give them a loan unless he can weaponize them against his enemies.

It almost seems like Trump actively wants the Post Office to fail.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.

Last modified: September 25, 2020 8:41 PM

Aaron Weaver

Aaron is the U.S. editor of CCN.com located in Los Angeles. He has been a professional writer and comedian for over ten years. After graduating with honors from Western Michigan University, he's written extensively for newspapers, websites, and various TV shows and web series. Email: aaron.weaver@ccn.com. LinkedIn profile.