Donald Trump arrives for his White House daily press apperance, August 12, 2020 (AP)

UPDATE, AUGUST 14:

The US Postal Service is removing mail sorting machines around the country without any official explanation.

Postal workers and union officials spoke of the withdrawal of the machines, many of which are used for sorting mail-in ballots.

Nineteen mail sorting machines from five processing facilities have already been removed or are scheduled to be withdrewn in the near future.

“I’m not sure you’re going to find an answer for why this makes sense,” said Iowa Postal Workers Union President Kimberly Karol, “because we haven’t figured that out either.”

An employee at a Buffalo, New York, distribution facility which is losing six of 21 sorting machines, said: “Look at it this way: Your local grocery store was forced to cut 1/3 of its cash-out lines, but management expected the same productivity, quality, and speed for the customer. It’s just never going to happen.”

USPS spokesperson David Partenheimer played down the withdrawals:

The Postal Service routinely moves equipment around its network as necessary to match changing mail and package volumes. Package volume is up, but mail volume continues to decline. Adapting our processing infrastructure to the current volumes will ensure more efficient, cost effective operations, and better service for our customers.

ORIGINAL ENTRY, AUGUST 13: Donald Trump boasts that he is starving the US Postal Service of funding, so he can stop mail-in voting in November’s elections.

Trump indicated at his White House appearance on Wednesday that he was blocking a Coronavirus relief package, proposed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, because of support for the Postal Service.

He added his standard lies that mail-in voting is fraudulent, and that Democrats had “spied” on his 2016 Presidential campaign

They’ve asked for a ridiculous $3.5 billion, that’s billion, $3.5 billion for universal mail-in voting, a system riddled by fraud and corruption….They want $25 billion for the Post Office because of this….

It will be the greatest rigged election in history. It will be the greatest fraud ever perpetrated other than perhaps what they did to my campaign, where they spied on my campaign, President Obama, [Joe] Biden and everybody else.

The statement was overshadowed by the first appearance of Democratic nominee Biden and his Vice Presidential running mate Kamala Harris, so Trump used his favorite outlet Fox TV on Thursday morning to reiterate his threat to undermine the election.

They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. If they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.

Pelosi and Schumer initially proposed $25 billion over 3 years, in their $3.4 trillion Coronavirus proposal to ensure Americans receive $600/week unemployment benefits through December and that cash-strapped states and cities are assisted. They revised the figure to $10 billion for one year in a $2 trillion compromise.

But the White House has rejected any support for the Postal Service, the extension of the unemployment benefits, and the state-city aid. Last Friday they cut off negotiations, with Trump issuing executive orders — likely unconstitutional — which include a suspension of payroll tax.

See TrumpWatch, Day 1,298: Coronavirus — Biden’s Call for Leadership as Trump’s Orders Fall Apart

“Cutting a Critical Lifeline”

In his White House appearance on Thursday afternoon, Trump lied that the funding for USPS was to carry out election fraud, “One of the reasons the Post Office needs that much money is to have all of these millions of ballots coming in from nowhere and nobody knows from where and where they’re going.”

He then added confusion to his warning:

All they have to do is make a deal. If they make a deal, the Postal Service is taken care of, the money they need for the mail-in ballots would be taken care of — if we agree to it. That doesn’t mean we are going to agree to it, but all they have to do is make a deal.

He did not explain how the Postal Service would be “taken care of” if Pelosi and Schumer capitulated to the White House’s $1 trillion proposal with no assistance for USPS. Instead, he reiterated:

if the bill isn’t going to get done, that would mean the Post Office isn’t going to get funded, and that would also mean that the $3.5 billion dollars isn’t going to be taken care of. So I don’t know how you could possibly use these ballots, these mail-in ballots.

In May, the White House appointed Trump campaign mega-donor Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General. He has immediately limited the Postal Service with sharp cutback and a ban on overtime. Last week 23 senior executives were suddenly dismissed.

On Wednesday, both Trump and his wife Melania were posted their mail-in ballots from Palm Beach County, Florida.

But Trump has exempted Florida from his assault on postal voting, declaring that a robust system is in place.

Far from coincidentally, the Trump campaign is counting on mail-in ballots from many of Florida’s elderly population to ensure their victory in a key swing state where Trump is trailing Biden in polls.

Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said Thursday:

The President of the United States is sabotaging a basic service that hundreds of millions of people rely upon, cutting a critical lifeline for rural economies and for delivery of medicines, because he wants to deprive Americans of their fundamental right to vote safely during the most catastrophic public health crisis in over 100 years.