Total chaos erupts as Donald Trump’s Post Office sabotage scheme goes awry

| 10:36 pm EDT August 15, 2020
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Donald Trump was never going to be able to keep the Post Office broken all the way to election day; he’s not even close to having the political leverage to pull it off. That’s why Trump has even gone so far as to admit during his recent press conference that he’s willing to trade the Post Office back to the House in exchange for other stimulus concessions; this was always a short term play on his part. Now it’s getting even shorter.

Amid mounting public pressure, Trump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to testify to the House about his antics. He’s refusing to show up until next month; he knows that even if House Democrats took him to court, far more than a month would go by before the courts would order him to testify. But the key is that he’s agreeing to show up at all, meaning he knows he’s cornered. It also means DeJoy will have to spend the next month playing defense by preparing for his testimony, which means he’ll be less able to play offense.

This is a major incremental victory for House Democrats, even if it doesn’t involve the magic wand-waving that some within the Resistance always insist must be involved. House Democrats are also leaking to the media that they’re weighing calling an emergency House session in order to deal with the debacle. But if you really want evidence that Trump is rapidly losing his Post Office battle, just look at the total chaos breaking out within his own party.

First, to the surprise of no one, Republican Senator Mitt Romney began vocally defending the Post Office against Donald Trump’s antics. Then the ever-tepid Marco Rubio did the same. Now Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is publicly siding with the Post Office. This is no surprise. This Post Office sabotage was always a short term gambit by Trump, because the public would never allow it to be a long term one – and even the Republicans in Congress are afraid of getting hit by the fallout if Trump drags it on too long before caving.