Stephen Mihm, Columnist

How Congress Used the Post Office to Unite the Nation

Trump says Amazon is scamming the USPS. But its low shipping rates were a game changer for rural America.

April 4, 2018 at 3:00 PM UTC

Stephen Mihm, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, is coauthor of “Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance.”

Crucial connectors.
Photographer: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images

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Everyone knows that President Donald Trump loves feuds, but one of his strangest targets is Amazon. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the retail giant is “scamming” the U.S. Post Office by taking advantage of the venerable institution’s low shipping rates.

Trump has long complained about the Washington Post, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ ownership of it. But it’s still worth assessing the merits of the president’s argument. Is Amazon exploiting the Post Office?