Amid accusations that Donald Trump is working to undermine the postal service, liberals blamed Republicans and the president for locked mailboxes seen in a viral photo — however, as multiple users on social media noted, the practice predates Trump’s time in office.
The photo: An image shared by former NBA basketball player Rex Chapman on Sunday purported to show locked mailboxes in Burbank, California, with the apparent implication being that the locked boxes were part of a politically motivated plot to stop mail-in voting.
Chapman, an NBA first round draft pick in 1988, asked his nearly 1 million Twitter followers if they’d ever seen a “LOCKED mailbox” at the U.S. Postal Service.
- “A disgrace and immediate threat to American democracy. Shame on them. Shame on the GOP,” Chapman said, apparently suggesting that Republicans had locked the mailboxes as part of a plot to prevent mail-in voting.
- Several other liberal Twitter users shared similar images of locked mailboxes, with many accusing Trump of “literally trying to stop the mail from being delivered.”
- “Locked Mailboxes have been spotted in Burbank, California. Louis DeJoy, the GOP, the MAGA are the enemy of the United States,” tweeted Twitter personality Ricky Davila, referencing Louis DeJoy, the Trump donor appointed by the president in May to serve as U.S. Postmaster General and chief executive officer.
Debunked: But as many Twitter users pointed out, the practice of locking mailboxes predates Trump’s tenure and the current controversy involving the Postal Service.
- The Los Angeles Daily News reported in April 2016 – before Trump took office – that the Postal Service had responded to thefts by installing drive-up mailboxes across Southern California with red locking caps like the one seen in Chapman’s photo.
- Other Twitter users shared footage showing that while the boxes appeared to be locked on one end, they still had slots available for mail deposits on the other side:
The controversy: Speculation from Trump’s critics that his opposition to mail-in voting was leading him to sabotage the Postal Service was further fueled by the president saying last week that he would be willing to block emergency funding to the U.S.P.S. because “that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”
- But some experts, like Minnesota-based attorney and policy advocate Nick Harper, think the notion that recent changes at the Postal Service are part of a partisan plot to block mail-in voting is misguided.
- In a lengthy Medium post published Saturday, Harper, a critic of Trump, laid out an exhaustive case detailing why many of the mainstream media narratives surrounding the Post Office are based on “fear and misinformation.”
