President Trump Criticizes USPS-Amazon Relationship On Twitter

NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Devin Leonard about President Trump's tweet saying the U.S. Postal Service should charge more to deliver Amazon packages. Leonard wrote a book about the U.S. Post Office called Neither Snow nor Rain.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And now a reading of a President Trump tweet from this morning. Quote, "why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the post office dumber and poorer? Should be charging much more." And there's an exclamation point at the end, and much more is in all caps. The U.S. Postal Service reported a $2 billion loss in thethird quarter of the year, and it does have a $15 billion outstanding debt. That's the statutory limit.

Devin Leonard is a staff writer for Bloomberg Businessweek, and he's the author of a book about the Postal Service. And he joins us now. Welcome back to the program.

DEVIN LEONARD: Thanks for having me, Robert.

SIEGEL: The president is likely referring in that tweet to a deal between the U.S. Postal Service and Amazon by which the company uses the Postal Service to finish what's referred to as the last mile of delivery. Mail carriers are delivering millions of Amazon packages every day. What do we know about this agreement, how it actually works?

LEONARD: Well, the president's right that USPS, the United States Postal Service, is subsidizing Amazon. Amazon's built these