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Postmaster General David Steiner poses for a photograph at the United States Postal Service headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Mark Schiefelbein\/AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein<\/p>\n
Postmaster General David Steiner speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United States Postal Service headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Mark Schiefelbein\/AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein<\/p>\n
Postmaster General David Steiner speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United States Postal Service headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Mark Schiefelbein\/AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein<\/p>\n
Postmaster General David Steiner speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United States Postal Service headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Mark Schiefelbein\/AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein<\/p>\n
Postmaster General David Steiner speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United States Postal Service headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Mark Schiefelbein\/AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Long before he was the top official at the U.S. Postal Service, David Steiner was a corporate executive surfing mid-oughts television when he came across Donald Trump on \u201cThe Apprentice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf that is leadership, if that\u2019s what we\u2019re telling people that our culture and our media portrays as leadership, we\u2019re screwed,\u201d Steiner, then the CEO of Waste Management, said during a 2007 speech at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. \u201cIf that\u2019s leadership, count me out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for God\u2019s sake,\u201d he added to laughter, \u201cif I have to get my hair to look like that, if I have to do that to be a leader, you can definitely count me out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly two decades later, Trump has migrated from reality television to the presidency. And onetime detractors \u2014 Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, for example \u2014 now loyally execute his agenda.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s effort to use the Postal Service as a tool to reshape American elections is testing whether Steiner will follow a similar path.<\/p>\n
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Independent or a Trump \u2018pawn\u2019?<\/p>\n
When Trump signed an executive order restricting mail ballots this year, Steiner moved quickly to finalize a rule implementing the measure, arguing he had little choice. But after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the effort, Steiner told The Associated Press that work had stopped on one of the plan\u2019s most controversial elements, a government portal for voter rolls.<\/p>\n
He refused to endorse the Republican president\u2019s order as sound policy, saying he was focused on implementation and letting the courts ultimately decide the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t get to decide what rules that are put on us that I decide to accept or not accept,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are an independent agency of the executive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The episode prompted fierce criticism of Steiner for allowing Trump to deploy an agency designed to be shielded from politics.<\/p>\n
Jena Griswold, Colorado\u2019s Democratic secretary of state, called Steiner a \u201cTrump lackey.\u201d Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., accused him of being a Trump \u201cpawn\u201d during a congressional hearing this summer.<\/p>\n
Some Republicans have joined in the criticism. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, incensed by abandoned mail, called for Steiner\u2019s resignation and introduced legislation to block him from receiving a bonus.<\/p>\n
During a lengthy interview, Steiner seemed surprised at points by his reception in Washington. He insisted he wasn\u2019t a \u201cpolitical person\u201d and said he had no intention of stepping down despite the criticism. He dismissed heated congressional appearances as \u201ctheater\u201d at odds with more substantive private interactions on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n
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Steiner was chagrined, however, at the mention of his 2007 remarks on Trump, delivered well before he launched a political career. Steiner recalled speaking at the university but said he didn\u2019t remember his comments, acknowledging a tendency to be \u201cflippant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s funny,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t recall it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment on Steiner\u2019s remarks or his stewardship of the Postal Service.<\/p>\n
Steiner didn\u2019t follow the traditional path to power in Trump\u2019s Washington<\/p>\n
The Postal Service dates to Benjamin Franklin, the first postmaster general, whose portrait and bust are displayed in Steiner\u2019s office overlooking the Washington Wharf. The agency has more than 630,000 employees, dwarfing many Cabinet departments.<\/p>\n
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While the quickest way to top jobs in Trump\u2019s Washington is often by writing big checks, the 66-year-old Steiner doesn\u2019t appear to have followed that course. He has largely donated to Republicans but also gave to John Kerry\u2019s Democratic presidential campaign in 2004. Unlike his predecessor as postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, Steiner was not a major GOP donor or Trump backer.<\/p>\n
Born in Oakland, California, as one of eight children to a father who spent his career at Chevron, Steiner worked in corporate and securities law before moving to Waste Management in 2000. He became CEO in 2004 and ran the company for 12 years. He was also a longtime director at FedEx, where board chairman Brad Martin recalled him as \u201coutcome oriented\u201d and rarely political.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to follow the rules. He\u2019s going to follow the law,\u201d Martin said. \u201cI don\u2019t recall us ever talking politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time a headhunter contacted Steiner about the postmaster general job, he was largely removed from daily corporate life and initially demurred.<\/p>\n
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He changed his mind, he said, during a visit to the beaches of Normandy, feeling a sense of civic duty.<\/p>\n
Now at the Postal Service, he earns about $346,000 in annual salary along with a relocation bonus that amounts to half his salary, far less than the $17 million in compensation he earned during his final year at Waste Management. His current role is designed to exist one layer removed from the political process, reporting to a board of governors that is selected by the president and confirmed by the Senate.<\/p>\n
He was hired in 2025 by a board that was made up of five members, three of whom were Democrats. All but one were appointed by President Joe Biden. That makeup could change as four Trump nominees \u2014 all Republicans \u2014 await Senate confirmation. Steiner can be fired only by the board.<\/p>\n
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Steiner said he first met Trump along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the board\u2019s urging after he was already selected as postmaster general. Since then, he described a minimal relationship with the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t fly on the radar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Postmaster General David Steiner poses for a photograph at the United States Postal Service headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96255,154992,943,154994,32533,145,40099,89691,147,24423,120974,101633,154993,17266,23681,59373,86083,86795,84874,59371,61262,82,84,83,7883,154991],"class_list":["post-450565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-benjamin-franklin","tag-brad-martin","tag-colorado","tag-david-steiner","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-elissa-slotkin","tag-howard-lutnick","tag-jd-vance","tag-joe-biden","tag-john-kerry","tag-josh-hawley","tag-louis-dejoy","tag-marco-rubio","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30031-ap-california-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30117-ap-washington-dc-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30597-ap-business-news-f-wire","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-ted-cruz","tag-trump-mail-voting-postmaster-general-steiner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}