By Jacob Bogage
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Postal Service has told confidants that he is deeply discouraged by his job and wants to resign, according to four people familiar with his thinking, as the agency comes under scrutiny over financial losses and President Donald Trump’s effort to tighten rules on mail-in voting.
Postmaster General David Steiner, who took office in July 2025 after the White House forced out his predecessor, has expressed frustration over a lack of help from the White House and Congress in addressing the mail service’s long-running financial woes, the people said.
At the same time, the Postal Service was thrust to the center of a debate over the federal government’s role in voting after Trump directed it in March to serve as a clearinghouse for mail ballots. The Supreme Court on Monday blocked the agency from implementing key elements of the plan, dealing the White House a significant setback.
The pressures culminated in a contentious June Senate hearing, where lawmakers from both parties interrogated Steiner over poor delivery service, Trump’s ballot restrictions and his compensation.
The hearing left Steiner furious, the people said. In conversations afterward, Steiner described the job as thankless, warned that the agency’s finances were increasingly dire without federal aid, and said he wanted out, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The message was, this isn’t what he signed up for, and he didn’t come on board to get beat up like this,” one of the people said.
The Postal Service disputed the information from the sources, saying it had “absolutely zero validity,” but did not comment on specific incidents. The agency did not respond to a request for an interview with Steiner.
TRUMP ATTEMPTS TO INTERVENE ON MAIL-IN VOTING
The postmaster general, who runs the independent agency of 630,000 employees, is hired and evaluated by a bipartisan board of governors nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The agency’s structure was purposefully designed to insulate the mail service from political tinkering.
Steiner, a former FedEx board member and former chief executive of Waste Management, told board members during the hiring process he planned to serve for roughly two years, the people said.
Since taking office, he has repeatedly told lawmakers that without new funding the Postal Service would be forced to cut delivery days and close unprofitable post offices, mostly in rural, Republican-leaning areas.
Lawmakers largely rejected Steiner’s proposals to reduce services, and mail and package companies chafed at large rate increases designed to ease losses.
Trump, in both of his terms, has been more involved with the Postal Service than his predecessors, pressuring the agency to raise parcel rates, intervening in the selection process for the postmaster general and attempting to implement mail-in voting restrictions.
His involvement has at times made the agency — and its leaders — the object of intense congressional scrutiny.
SENATE HEARING PUTS STEINER IN SPOTLIGHT
At the June hearing, Steiner sparred with Committee Chair Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican, over years of agency financial losses, and with Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, who accused Steiner of being a “pawn” in Trump’s plans to restrict voting access.
Steiner defended Trump’s proposal.
“I would think the states would want the information to ensure that the ballots that they think they’re sending out are the ballots that are actually being sent out,” he said at the hearing.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri also called for Steiner to refuse his bonus because of the agency’s service issues. Steiner earns an annual salary of $346,780, according to postal financial disclosures, and drew a 2025 relocation bonus worth 50% of his salary.
The four people familiar with Steiner’s thinking said it was unclear how much congressional inquiries about Trump’s ballot rules had contributed to Steiner’s frustration. They noted that Steiner had already contemplated stepping down in late 2025 over the Postal Service’s difficult financial circumstances.
In an effort at that time to bolster Steiner’s morale and enlist White House support for his restructuring plans, Trump donors in the mailing industry organized a December 2025 trip for the postmaster general to golf with the president at one of his Florida resorts, the people said.
(Reporting by Jacob Bogage in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Edmund Klamann)
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