Q&A: President Trump, the post office and Amazon

NEW YORK (AP) — A task force will study the U.S. Postal Service under an executive order from President Donald Trump, who has spent weeks criticizing online retailer Amazon and accused it of not paying enough in shipping costs.

The order doesn’t mention Amazon by name, but Trump has tweeted that the company should pay the post office more for shipping its packages. “Only fools, or worse, are saying that our money losing Post Office makes money with Amazon.

THEY LOSE A FORTUNE, and this will be changed,” he tweeted earlier this month.

The U.S. Postal Service has indeed lost money for years, but package delivery has actually been a bright spot.

Here’s what you need to know about Trump’s order, Amazon and the post office:

Q: What does the executive order do?

A: It creates a task force to look into the post office’s finances and costs, including its pricing in the package delivery market. Trump asks the task force, which will be led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to offer recommendations and possible changes. “The USPS is on an unsustainable financial path and must be restructured,” Trump said in the order.

Q: Is this task force related to Amazon?

A: Amazon is not named, but Trump has said he wants the company to pay more in shipping costs. In a tweet last month, for example, Trump wrote, “This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs.”

Q:: What does Amazon pay the U.S. Postal Service?

A: The details of its contract are not publicly known, and both Amazon and the post office have declined to comment. Amazon executive Jay Carney said this week at a Yale University event open to the public that the company’s contract is profitable for the post office and that it is renewed and reviewed every year. Carney, who oversees Amazon’s public and government relations, didn’t comment on Trump’s tweets, saying: “We’re focused on what we do every day, on our customers, on the responsibilities we have.”

Q: Is the U.S. Postal Service losing money?

A: Yes, the post office has been losing money every year for more than a decade, adding up to $65 billion in losses, as Trump’s executive order states. In its most recent year, its losses narrowed to $2.7 billion from the year before as it paid less in retiree health benefits during that time; its losses in the previous year were more than double that number.