Louis DeJoy, the controversial head of the United States Postal Service (USPS), has resigned from his role effective immediately, the agency announced Monday. DeJoy, who took the reins in 2020, leaves behind a five-year legacy marked by bold moves to overhaul the struggling postal service.
Earlier this month, DeJoy revealed he’d reached out to Elon Musk’s government efficiency team for help tackling some of the agency’s persistent challenges. Yet, his sudden exit caught many off guard. Just weeks ago, he’d asked the USPS governing board to start looking for his replacement, though he gave no hint that his departure was imminent.
DeJoy’s tenure was anything but quiet. He slashed projected losses for the USPS from a staggering $160 billion over ten years down to $80 billion, a feat he accomplished by trimming staff, rethinking contracts, and adopting strategies reminiscent of Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) playbook. “There’s still a lot of work to do to keep us on the right path,” DeJoy said in a farewell statement. For now, Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino will step in as interim leader while the postal board, aided by a search firm, hunts for a permanent successor.
The timing of DeJoy’s exit raises eyebrows. Last month, reports surfaced that President Donald Trump was mulling an executive order to oust the USPS board of governors. Trump has also floated the idea of folding the postal service into the Commerce Department—a proposal Democrats slammed as illegal. Meanwhile, Musk has openly pushed for privatizing the USPS, an agency that employs 635,000 people and posted a $9.5 billion loss last year. Interestingly, the USPS has so far dodged the federal workforce cuts tied to the DOGE initiative.
The White House hasn’t said whether it played a role in DeJoy’s departure. This comes on the heels of last week’s news that the Biden administration pushed out Amtrak’s CEO, suggesting a broader shake-up of government-run services might be underway.
DeJoy’s five-year run leaves the USPS at a crossroads—leaner, but still grappling with big questions about its future in a rapidly changing world.
