Yet another whistleblower has come forward, late in August with only weeks until 2026 Midterm elections, to warn of abject chaos if Trump’s latest Executive Order to disrupt USPS operations is enforced. Represented by nonprofit advocacy group Whistleblower Aid, the unnamed federal official transmitted an account of their warnings to ranking member Richard Blumenthal on a Senate subcommittee—who then wrote to USPS postmaster general David Steiner demanding answers.
Per Steve Inskeep and Majd Al-Waheidi reporting for NPR:
The U.S. Postal Service has been building a new system to carry out Trump’s push to restrict mail-in voting, including an online portal for states to submit voter information before absentee ballots go into the mail. An anonymous federal official says the system was rushed and could keep ballots from reaching eligible voters on time.
As part of the ongoing legal fight over Trump’s mail-voting order, a federal judge has temporarily blocked USPS from requiring states to use the portal in order to send out their mail-in ballots for the midterm election. The Postal Service is appealing that ruling.
Steve Inskeep and Majd Al-Waheidi for NPR
ProPublica‘s reporting does a better job enumerating risks of Trump’s latest petulant foot-stamping, which actually dates back to an earlier executive order in March (also challenged in court).
(Writer’s note: attacks on mailed ballots dates even further back to 2020 and Louis DeJoy; more on that in my Author Footnote.)
Per Jen Fifield:
In a March executive order, Trump [demanded that] the Postal Service create the new rules, including requiring states to give USPS a list of all voters eligible to receive a ballot in the mail and requiring USPS to use those lists to determine which ballots get sent to voters. USPS officials were tasked with crafting the details of how the new system would work, including the creation of a new portal for states to upload their voters’ information and the back-end software that would allow mail delivery sites and local post offices to track, and potentially block, ballots entering into the mail on their way to voters.
Voting rights organizations, state officials and Democratic political groups filed lawsuits challenging the new rules, and a federal court has temporarily blocked the requirements for states.
<SNIP>
Election clerks raised similar concerns directly to USPS officials just days before the final rule was issued, at a mid-August National Association of Election Officials conference in Kansas City, Missouri, ProPublica has learned. There, an example was given of Maricopa County, Arizona, which often sends out more than 2 million ballots at a time in its initial mailing. USPS officials confirmed it was possible that one ballot with a bad barcode or wrong voter information within the more than 2 million ballots could delay the entire mailing, according to two people who attended the related committee meeting.
Jen Fifield, ProPublica
Like they do in any crisis of their making (from ICE abductions to occupation of blue cities and everything in between) Trump’s associates are lying to media about their actions. The spokesperson told ProPublica: “Regardless of political party or perspective, we share a common goal: ensuring that Americans can have confidence that their election mail will be handled securely and delivered reliably.”
This particular facet of the Right’s kinetic, clumsy sabotage of USPS operations dates back to 2020 and then-postmaster Louis DeJoy, who lied repeatedly under oath about his “activities” overseeing Postal Service operations. DeJoy famously removed Blue Boxes and had sorting machines destroyed, in addition to cutting overtime pay for USPS workers during the COVID pandemic. Last December, an official rule change from USPS allowed a later postmark than when Postal Service took possession, which would greatly impact ballots.
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
Orwellian gaslighting from Donny’s Regime 2 is a feature, not a bug, of corrupt authoritarianism. Media bears a ton of responsibility here, running official statements from likes of DHS, FBI and ICE like they have any tether to reality (it’s an epidemic of lie-washing). In 2026, the lies and gaslighting are on steroids with the benefit of system tests and dry runs: Lou DeJoy is essentially the poster child for Republicans who lie repeatedly under oath and suffer absolutely no consequences.
Should also be noted that U.S. media never adequately investigated DeJoy’s malfeasance. Lou swung a ton of money to Trump & RNC when the Postmaster job came open it barely blipped the news cycle. DeJoy also had documented self-dealing after he got the gig, to say nothing of his alleged election fraud in North Carolina prior to getting the “mob nod” for USPS postmaster.
In any event, the best way to understand Donny’s latest EO-based tantrum is to understand from which Dry Run it was born. I did a ton of reporting on DeJoy’s putting USPS through a woodchipper (linked some of my pieces below), including how then-chairwoman Carolyn Maloney demanded DeJoy come testify about his shenanigans.
To my surprise, DeJoy turned up and got put through the wringer because Maloney received whistleblower evidence that was not in the document dump DeJoy provided to her committee. From reporter Igor Derysh writing for Salon (published by TruthOut):
Maloney threatened to subpoena DeJoy during the hearing after grilling him over an internal assessment of USPS performance that showed a significant slowdown after DeJoy took over the agency. Maloney questioned why the committee learned about the assessment from a whistleblower when the panel had asked the USPS to turn over documents related to the agency’s performance.
The point here is pretty simple: most of the discussion surrounding Donny’s destruction op in corporate media centers around the “tick-tock” of what’s happening today—without mentioning that DeJoy’s unprosecuted crimes against the Postal Service laid the foundation for what Donald is doing today.
Whistleblowers then and now are risking their lives (and their families’ well-being) to warn the American people the fix is in.
This is a sweeping conspiracy to weaken, render inept and ultimately destroy America’s favorite institution. A number of lawyers are fighting this action in federal courts, with a lot of success, but judges are only ruling for democracy because brave folks are standing up against tyranny. And it’s up to us to hear them and act accordingly.
SOURCES
- Central Florida Public Media
- ProPublica
- CrankyYank
- CrankyYank: North Carolina Election Fraud
- TruthOut
