Donald Trump has expressed strong interest in recent weeks in privatizing the United States Postal Service (USPS) because of its financial losses, The Washington Post reported Saturday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

Trump, who begins his second U.S. presidency on Jan. 20, spoke at his Mar-a-Lago home with Howard Lutnick, his chosen commerce secretary, about his desire to privatize the USPS, the report said.

As the Post noted, the move could disrupt consumer shipping and business supply chains while displacing hundreds of thousands of federal workers from the government.

Still, Trump gathered a group of officials advising him on his transition back to the White House and asked them for their opinions on privatizing the agency. When informed of his annual financial losses, Trump said the USPS should not be subsidized by the government, according to people who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity so they could speak candidly about private conversations.

Trump’s specific plans for a possible overhaul and privatization of the USPS were not immediately clear. But during his first presidency, he feuded with the agency and tried to force it to transfer key functions – including labor relations, managing relationships with its largest customers, rate setting and personnel matters – to the federal Treasury.

Before his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election cost him his first presidency, Trump argued that the USPS was unable to provide mail-in voting because it was denying the agency access to emergency funding. As the Post noted, despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the USPS ultimately delivered nearly 98% of voters’ ballots to election officials within three days.

The USPS is older than the USA itself and was founded in 1775. It became a financially self-sustaining agency in 1970 and is one of the most popular federal agencies, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center study cited by the Post.

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the USPS lost $9.5 billion after upgrades to facilities and equipment did little to counteract declines in mail volume and package shipping business was slower than expected, according to Post reporting . The Postal Service’s annual financial report reported nearly $80 billion in liabilities.

Reuters contributed reporting