Trump challenged Amazon to 'build their own post office' if the company balks at his idea of getting charged up to 5 times more in shipping rates as part of a USPS bailout

• Trump again accused Amazon of taking advantage of the US Postal Service, challenging the company to "build their own post office" during a press conference Friday.
• Trump has frequently complained that Amazon and other online retailers are taking advantage of the USPS through below-market shipping rates.
• The president said he's considering using $10 billion in emergency coronavirus aid as leverage to exert more control over the cash-strapped USPS, suggesting it should quadruple its prices.
• Logistics experts have said Amazon benefits significantly from the USPS, but raising rates could also make it more difficult for the postal service to compete with shipping companies, hurting their financial state in the long run.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump revisited his complaint that Amazon is responsible for the US Postal Service's financial challenges during a press conference Friday, while also suggesting the USPS should let the company handle its own shipping.

"If [the USPS] raise the price of a package like they should — four or five times, that's what it should be — or let Amazon build their own post office, which would be an impossible thing to do because the post office is massive and serves every little piece of the country... it would be a whole new ball game," Trump said.

Trump has repeatedly accused Amazon, as well as other online retailers, of contributing to the USPS' financial woes by getting away with below-market package delivery rates — effectively arguing the USPS is unfairly subsidizing transportation costs for the $1.2 trillion company.

As of 2018, the USPS was approaching nearly $70 billion in cumulative losses, and last month, a group of Democratic lawmakers said the coronavirus outbreak could shutter the USPS by June.

During Friday's press conference, Trump confirmed a Thursday report from The Washington Post that his administration is considering using an emergency loan included in The CARES Act, the $2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress last month, as leverage to require the cash-strapped US Postal Service to make massive changes to its structure and management.

"If they don't raise the price, I'm not signing anything," Trump said, referring to the emergency loan, which must first be approved by the US Treasury Department.

Trump's criticism of Amazon's relationship with the USPS is hardly new, and he has been suggesting for years that the USPS should raise the rates it charges to deliver packages for the company in order to recoup its losses.

"Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer?" Trump tweeted in December 2017.

Trump's reasoning may have some merit: logistics analysts have concluded that Amazon has been able to build a transportation network, in which the company can save money delivering its own packages, by relying significantly on the USPS.

A December report from Morgan Stanley found that Amazon's in-house delivery network is "cherry-picking" America's densest ZIP codes. The USPS is then charged with delivering Amazon packages in rural areas. Servicing rural areas, where homes are more spread out, is more expensive — and the USPS isn't able to recoup those losses by servicing urban areas on behalf of Amazon.

However, as The Washington Post noted, raising package delivery rates could also make it more difficult for the USPS to compete with Amazon and other shipping companies like UPS and FedEx, hurting their financial state in the long run.

Rachel Premack and Grace Panetta contributed reporting to this story.

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