Dozens gathered outside the Iowa City post office Sunday to express support for keeping the U.S. Postal Service, or USPS, a public service.
At the Feb. 25 swearing-in ceremony for Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump said he was considering merging the USPS with the Commerce Department, stating the move would improve the efficiency of the USPS, which he described as “a tremendous loser for this country.”
Ben Keyser, a 10-year letter carrier and organizer of the Sunday protest, said the 91 percent approval rating for the USPS defies Trump’s characterization.
“This is about making sure that the Trump administration and Congress is aware that we want to protect folks from privatization,” Keyser said. “We want to make sure it remains a public institution that all Americans can access.”
Keyser emphasized that privatizing the USPS would restrict access and raise costs for rural residents since remote deliveries are costly and inefficient — making them unattractive to private companies focused on profit.
“Fifty-one million Americans live in rural communities,” Keyser said, addressing the crowd of approximately 80 attendees. “They would be the ones most likely to suffer under any privatization plan.”
The 51-million estimate was cited last month by the National Letter Carriers Association, the union Keyser belongs to.
Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan, who was in the crowd, said he values a public postal service, having grown up on a rural farm.
“It’s not cost-effective to serve people who live where I grew up,” Sullivan said. “The post office doesn’t worry about that. They just serve you because that’s where you live, and that’s really important.”
Attendee Karen Disbrow, also raised on a farm, echoed this point.
“The mail was everything,” Disbrow said. “I feel very strongly about the post office. It was developed before the Constitution. It’s in the Constitution. They have no right to destroy it.”
Iowa City City Council member Shawn Harmsen attended the protest while also using the USPS, pulling out a birthday card to his nephew in Milwaukee. He noted it would cost under $1 to mail with the USPS, compared to much higher prices with FedEx or UPS.
“I can easily send a birthday card to him and not worry about it,” Harmsen said. “But it’s so much more than that. It’s social security checks that people need. It’s all kinds of things businesses rely on all the time. So, [the USPS] is one of the many things that’s worth fighting for.”
After Keyser addressed the crowd, Ross Nusser, who recently ran for Iowa City City Council’s District C seat, spoke as a fifth-generation Iowa City business owner — highlighting the importance of USPS to his family’s business, Hands Jewelers.
Nusser shared the story of a client who had moved out of state and needed a family heirloom ring repaired. He said the client received the repaired ring with tracking, insurance, and confidence that it would arrive safely, thanks to the USPS.
“This isn’t just about packages. It’s about people. It’s about trust, about the promises that, no matter where you live, the mail will reach you,” Nusser said. “So, let’s be clear — hell no to dismantling the postal service. We stand with our carriers.”
RELATED: Photos: “Hands Off” Protest in Iowa City
Echoing the points about access to rural residents, Scott Punteney, president of the Iowa City Federation of Labor, said he believes the Trump administration and Republican Party are attempting to privatize the basic services that many Americans rely on.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m tired. I’m fed up. I’m ready to fight like hell,” Punteney said.
Cameron Cook, a USPS letter carrier since 2018, shared a similar sentiment regarding the large crowd at Sunday’s protest and the even larger crowd that gathered in downtown Iowa City the day before as part of the nationwide “Hands Off” rallies against Trump and Elon Musk.
“We’re not here to mess around with. We’re not going to roll over and take whatever the powerful elite want us to,” Cook said. “They’re not concerned with the needs of everyday people.”
Holding a sign that read “Not a paid actor,” Iowa City resident Amanda Coiner pushed back against claims from right-wing figures that anti-Trump protesters are paid by investor George Soros.
“My whole entire family is here, and none of us are receiving any money,” Coiner said. “We just really care about the post office and the continuous cuts that keep happening in order to put more money in billionaires’ hands.”
The “paid actor” narrative was recently echoed by an Iowa Republican Party spokesperson in a statement to KCCI about the statewide “Hands Off” rallies. At a March 30 rally in Wisconsin, following his support for a conservative Supreme Court candidate, Elon Musk similarly dismissed those booing his speech by implying ties to George Soros.
While PolitiFact has previously debunked claims circulating on social media and reported by the New York Post that George Soros directly funds protests, Coiner emphasized what she views as the danger of misinformation.
“I think that maybe people who watch Fox News actually do believe it,” Coiner said. “It’s pretty sad.”
The protest concluded after an hour with no disruption by counter-protesters.