You’ve probably seen the name. Louis DeJoy, the man who became the face of every delayed birthday card and late utility bill over the last few years, isn't exactly a quiet figure. He’s the 75th U.S. Postmaster General, but honestly, he’s more like a lightning rod. When he walked into the headquarters at L'Enfant Plaza in June 2020, he wasn't just another bureaucrat. He was an outsider. A logistics mogul. A guy who thought the Postal Service should run like a business, not a hobby.
But here is the thing. The USPS was already screaming for help long before he showed up.
By the time DeJoy took the wheel, the agency had lost roughly $90 billion over the previous decade. Think about that number. It’s staggering. He walked into a situation where 31,000 facilities were literally falling apart, with $20 billion in deferred maintenance. Roofs were leaking. Vehicles were older than the people driving them. Basically, the Post Office was a financial Titanic hitting an iceberg made of declining mail volume and crushing retiree health benefit mandates.
Why Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Still Matters in 2026
Most people think DeJoy’s tenure was just a 2020 election sideshow. It wasn't. Even though he stepped down in March 2025—handing the keys over to David Steiner—his "Delivering for America" plan is still the blueprint. It’s a 10-year overhaul. It’s massive. It’s also incredibly controversial because it accepts a hard truth: the way we used to get mail is dead.
DeJoy pushed for "Regional Processing and Distribution Centers." Big name, simple concept. Instead of mail wandering through a maze of small, crumbling local hubs, it gets funneled through giant, high-tech centers. The goal? Efficiency. The reality? For a lot of people in places like Wisconsin or Georgia, it felt like their mail was falling into a black hole during the transition.
Some folks called it sabotage. DeJoy called it "recover and rescue."
The Business of Moving Boxes
Before he was the most talked-about man in Washington, DeJoy ran New Breed Logistics. He started with ten employees. By the time he sold it to XPO Logistics, he had thousands. He knows how to move stuff from Point A to Point B. That’s why the Board of Governors picked him. They didn't want a "postal lifer" who would just keep the lights on until the pension fund went dry. They wanted a hatchet man who could fix the pipes.
He wasn't a career postal employee. That mattered. It was the first time since 1992 that the USPS didn't promote from within.
Critics jumped on this immediately. They pointed to his past as a GOP mega-donor and his "straw donor" allegations—which the FEC eventually dismissed, by the way—as proof of a political hit job. But if you look at the "Delivering for America" plan, it’s remarkably un-political in its coldness. It raises prices. It slows down First-Class mail. It focuses on packages because that's where the money is.
The $9 Billion Problem
Despite all the cuts and the "rational" price hikes (you've noticed those Forever stamps getting pricier, right?), the USPS lost $9.5 billion in fiscal 2024. Then another $9 billion in 2025.
It’s a brutal cycle.
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- Mail volume drops because everyone uses email.
- Costs go up because of inflation and gas.
- The USPS raises stamp prices to cover the gap.
- More people stop sending mail because it's expensive.
DeJoy’s strategy was to lean into the package wars. He wanted to compete with Amazon, UPS, and FedEx. He bought thousands of new electric delivery vehicles (the "Next Generation Delivery Vehicles") to replace the ancient Grumman LLVs that were famous for occasionally catching fire. That was a win. But it’s a drop in a very large, very leaky bucket.
Honestly, the biggest weight on the Postal Service’s neck isn't even the mail. It’s the law. Until recently, they were forced to pre-fund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future. No other company does that. Congress finally fixed some of that with the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, but the agency is still restricted. They can only invest their retirement funds in low-yield Treasury securities. While the rest of the market grows, the USPS's nest egg barely moves.
What Really Happened Behind the Scenes
There’s this famous clip of DeJoy testifying before Congress where a Representative tells him he "blew up Wisconsin" because of mail delays. DeJoy’s response was blunt: "The first rockets that went to the moon blew up."
He’s not a "customer is always right" kind of guy. He’s a "the math has to work" kind of guy.
During his final months in 2025, he even started working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to find more "synergies." That’s corporate-speak for more cuts. They started looking at voluntary early retirements for 10,000 workers. They even floated the idea of auctioning off access to the "last-mile" delivery network—the literal path to your front door—to private companies in 2026.
It’s a radical shift from the "service" part of the United States Postal Service.
Misconceptions and Surprising Realities
- Myth: DeJoy wanted to destroy the Post Office to help private competitors.
- Reality: He actually invested billions in new sorting machines and vehicles. You don't buy 60,000 new trucks if you're trying to shut the doors tomorrow.
- Myth: The 2020 mail-in ballots were a disaster because of him.
- Reality: Even his harshest critics admitted that the 2020 and 2024 election mail performance was actually quite high—around 99.9% delivered within a week.
The tension was always between universal service and financial self-sufficiency. The law says the USPS has to deliver to every house in America, six days a week, regardless of how much it costs to get a letter to a cabin in the middle of Alaska. But the law also says they have to pay for themselves. In 2026, those two goals are basically at war with each other.
The Steiner Transition
When David Steiner took over in July 2025, he didn't scrap DeJoy's plan. He doubled down. Steiner, a former FedEx board member, is now the one trying to leverage those 33,000 retail locations to offer things like passport services and identity verification. They’re even talking about putting ATMs in post offices.
They are desperate for revenue.
If the Post Office runs out of cash—which some analysts say could happen by the end of 2026 without more legislative help—the DeJoy era will be remembered as either the "failed last stand" or the "painful surgery" that saved the patient.
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Actionable Insights for 2026
The Post Office isn't the same as it was five years ago. Here is how you should handle it now:
- Anticipate the "Slower" Normal: If you’re sending something time-sensitive via First-Class mail, give it at least 5-7 business days. The days of two-day cross-country letters for the price of a stamp are over.
- Use the Apps: The USPS "Informed Delivery" is actually great. It gives you a digital preview of your mail. In an era of consolidated hubs and potential delays, knowing what should be in your box is half the battle.
- Watch the "Last-Mile" Changes: If you see your local mail being delivered by a third-party contractor or through a "Ground Advantage" service, don't be surprised. This is part of the 2026 push to monetize the delivery network.
- Support Legislative Reform: If you care about your local post office staying open, the battle isn't at the sorting center—it's in D.C. The USPS needs the freedom to invest its retirement funds like a normal pension if it ever wants to stop the $9 billion annual bleeding.
The legacy of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is still being written by the people who replaced him. Whether you like him or hate him, he forced the country to stop ignoring the fact that the mail system was broke. Now, we’re just living with the consequences of the fix.