Donald Trump loses the upper hand in Post Office battle
Donald Trump’s Post Office gambit was always a short term play. He was never going to be able to drag it out through the election. He even acknowledged as much in multiple press conferences this week, when he admitted that he had merely taken the Post Office hostage so he could trade it back to Congress in exchange for other concessions. But now it turns out his Post Office gambit is falling apart more quickly than even we thought it would.
Trump’s gambit was essentially over when Mitt Romney publicly sided with the Post Office, and instead of being a one-mn show, Trump allies Marco Rubio and Kevin McCarthy ended up also siding with the Post Office. The gambit was totally over when Trump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy agreed to testify to the House next month, a sign that he was worried about the legal troubles he was going to face, and that he was looking to start playing defense instead of offense. But now things have accelerated.
The news yesterday was that the House scheduled DeJoy’s testimony for mid-September because it was the earliest he was willing to show up. DeJoy could drag this out into a months-long court battle if he wanted to, so it’s not as if the House can just wave a magic wand and force him to show up on a certain day. But while magic wands don’t exist in politics, leverage does. Sensing that Trump has lost the upper hand, the House is now demanding that DeJoy show up and testify next week.
To be clear, this means the House now thinks DeJoy is sufficiently backed into a corner that he’s likely willing to show up next week. This is ostensibly due to a combination of things. DeJoy can see that everyone from the Post Office Inspector General to the New Jersey Attorney General is now investigating him, and Trump can’t pardon state charges. Further, Trump’s own Republican allies are publicly signaling to him that this game is getting too dangerous, and that it’s time to get whatever they can get in exchange for caving on the Post Office.
The massive public protest and pushback against Donald Trump’s Post Office stunt is continuing to hand leverage to the House Democrats on the matter. It’s now clear we’re going to win the Post Office battle if we keep fighting. It’s worth keeping in mind that if you’re running around telling people that Trump has killed the Post Office and rigged the election, you’re actually telling people not to bother voting against him. Let’s not make the strategic mistake of handing Trump a victory out of his Post Office loss.
