Trump has convinced himself that the only way he can win is by suppressing the vote, by any means possible.

He has repeatedly attacked mail-in voting as fraudulent, although both he and his wife filed to vote by mail in Florida and he hailed that state’s mail-in plans.

He appointed Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor, as Postmaster General of the United States. DeJoy has begun systematically undermining the United States Postal Service. He reassigned the top leadership of the agency. The USPS has dismantled the machinery that sorts high-volume mail. Postal drop boxes are being removed. Post offices with low volume are closing.

Kimberly Karol, president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union, spoke to NPR and described what is happening.

Last night, Karol was interviewed by Rachel Maddow.

Maddow explained how Montanans blocked the USPS efforts to remove half the mailboxes across the state. Her conclusion: Pressure works. “They are stealing the mailboxes.”

The removal of mailboxes is not limited to Montana. It’s happening across the nation.

Before DeJoy’s appointment, the USPS warned 46 states that it lacked the capacity to guarantee that all mailed ballots would be counted:

Anticipating an avalanche of absentee ballots, the U.S. Postal Service recently sent detailed letters to 46 states and D.C. warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted — adding another layer of uncertainty ahead of the high-stakes presidential contest.

The letters sketch a grim possibility for the tens of millions of Americans eligible for a mail-in ballot this fall: Even if people follow all of their state’s election rules, the pace of Postal Service delivery may disqualify their votes.

The Postal Service’s warnings of potential disenfranchisement came as the agency undergoes a sweeping organizational and policy overhaul amid dire financial conditions. Cost-cutting moves have already delayed mail delivery by as much as a week in some places, and a new decision to decommission 10 percent of the Postal Service’s sorting machines sparked widespread concern the slowdowns will only worsen. Rank-and-file postal workers say the move is ill-timed and could sharply diminish the speedy processing of flat mail, including letters and ballots.

The ballot warnings, issued at the end of July from Thomas J. Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service, and obtained through a records request by The Washington Post, were planned before the appointment of Louis DeJoy, a former logistics executive and ally of President Trump, as postmaster general in early summer. They go beyond the traditional coordination between the Postal Service and election officials, drafted as fears surrounding the coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented and sudden shift to mail-in voting.

Democrats sought additional funding for the Postal Service, but Trump blocked it.

The United States Postal Service is established in the Constitution, but since Trump has never read that document, he doesn’t care. He named a Postmaster General and replaced most of its governing board with lackeys who are loyal to him, not the Constitution.

Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution, known as the Postal Clause or the Postal Power, empowers Congress “To establish Post Offices and Post Roads.The Post Office has the constitutional authority to designate mail routes. The Post Office is also empowered to construct or designate post offices with the implied authority to carry, deliver, and regulate the mail of the United States as a whole. The Postal Power also includes the power to designate certain materials as non-mailable, and to pass statutes criminalizing abuses of the postal system (such as mail fraud and armed robbery of post offices”

Trump corrupts the rule of law and the Constitution with equal diffidence. He believes that as president, he can do whatever he wants. Having survived impeachment, he is above the law.