The stakes have since grown: by late 2025 Amazon was the USPS' top customer at $6B+ in annual revenue while weighing an exit, and the two sides eventually renegotiated down to a 20% volume reduction instead of a threatened two-thirds cut (the 2026 deal). The 2020 review is the moment that political pressure turned into formal contractual scrutiny — and the resignation of the agency's vote-by-mail point-man alongside it signals deepening White House control over the service.
First-order effects
Amazon's package contracts — its largest single relationship with the USPS — now face a formal review run under leadership increasingly responsive to Trump, reviving the rate-hike fight Brennan blocked.
USPS operational independence narrows: losing its vote-by-mail point-man while launching this review concentrates decision-making closer to the president.
Second-order effects
Amazon's leverage is already visible in the outcome the corpus records: facing exit risk from a customer worth $6B+, the USPS settled for a 20% cut rather than the proposed two-thirds reduction — pricing power sits with the shipper, not the carrier.
Every escalation pushes Amazon further into its own US delivery network expansion, shrinking the parcel base the Postal Service depends on to offset mail decline.
Third-order effects
If a sitting president can drive contract reviews at an independent agency, USPS commercial terms become an instrument of political rather than purely financial logic — and large customers gain reason to treat the service as an unreliable counterparty.
Structurally, the pattern points toward the USPS' parcel business hollowing out as its biggest customer internalizes logistics, leaving a thinner revenue base behind the universal-service mandate.
The trend: The USPS is caught between presidential pressure on its largest customer relationship and Amazon's steady shift to in-house delivery — a dependency that each round of renegotiation makes more precarious.
“Maybe we should keep the postal service from dying for no reason” becoming a partisan take because the president wants to hurt the owner of a newspaper he doesn't like is straight-up lunacy.
@tantrumdan
Tantrum Dan on x
@MattGertz @KevinMKruse Someone needs to pull Donald aside and explain to him that if the USPS goes under, one of the companies with widespread delivery capabilities that will profit greatly from this turn of events is Amazon. Bezos wins again!
@laurasessions10
Laura Sessions on x
Does TRUMP know that USPS delivers to RURAL areas that other carriers won't? Not hurting Besos; he's hurting his voters and regular citizens. Oh and Amazon has THEIR OWN DELIVERY SERVICE .
@billpresspod
Bill Press on x
If @RealDonaldTrump gets the Post Office @USPS to raise the cost of shipping at @Amazon because he hates @WashingtonPost owner @JeffBezos, @Amazon should show the increased cost at checkout as *Trump Tax* H/T @MattGertz https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@danteusainferno
@danteusainferno on x
Pay close attn: this will be a developing scandal. Trump hasn't been quiet abt his disdain for USPS & desire to dismantle it. Worse yet, P.O.s are sending their workers out w/out PPE, & forcing them to work in dangerous conditions. Many fell sick & kept working. #Kakistocracy htt…
@nateonthehill
Nate Madden on x
Huh, neat. Wonder what spurred that move? https://twitter.com/...
@crampell
Catherine Rampell on x
Once again Trump is using the power of his office to try to punish a private company he perceives as a political enemy (in this case Amazon, whose founder personally owns the WaPo). Whatever happened to GOP complaints about picking winners and losers? https://www.washingtonpost.c…
@esglaude
Eddie S. Glaude Jr on x
Democrats please fight for the USPS | Postal Services launches review of package delivery fees as Trump influence grows https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@jacobbogage
Jacob Bogage on x
SCOOP: Postal Service is launching a review of package delivery fees for contracts with Amazon, UPS, FedEx and other, a sign of Trump's growing influence in the agency w/ @jdawsey1 Read here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...]
@jdawsey1
Josh Dawsey on x
The Postal Service is hiring an outside firm to study whether it can change its contracts with Amazon and other companies. Meanwhile, the deputy postmaster general — the agency's point-man on vote-by-mail initiatives — is resigning. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...