Trump's mail voting crackdown tests Postal Service leader who says he's 'not political'

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 “The Apprentice.”

He was unimpressed.

“If that is leadership, if that's what we're telling people that our culture and our media portrays as leadership, we're screwed,” Steiner, then the CEO of Waste Management, said during a 2007 speech at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. “If that's leadership, count me out.”

“And for God's sake,” he added to laughter, “if 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.”

Nearly two decades later, Trump has migrated from reality television to the presidency. And onetime detractors — Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, for example — now loyally execute his agenda.

Trump's effort to use the Postal Service as a tool to reshape American elections is testing whether Steiner will follow a similar path.

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's most controversial elements, a government portal for voter rolls.

He refused to endorse the Republican president's order as sound policy, saying he was focused on implementation and letting the courts ultimately decide the matter.

“I don't get to decide what rules that are put on us that I decide to accept or not accept,” he said. “We are an independent agency of the executive branch.”

The episode prompted fierce criticism of Steiner for allowing Trump to deploy an agency designed to be shielded from politics.

Jena Griswold, Colorado's Democratic secretary of state, called him a “Trump lackey.” Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, recently asked Congress to deploy observers to ensure postal workers can scan envelopes holding mail ballots without disruption, saying the Trump administration "has attempted to weaponize federal agencies to interfere in our elections, and the leadership at USPS is going along with it.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., accused Steiner of being a Trump “pawn” during a congressional hearing this summer. Dozens of congressional Democrats have pressed Steiner to reveal his interactions with the White House during the development of the mail ballot rule.

Some Republicans have joined in the criticism. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, incensed by abandoned mail, called for Steiner's resignation and introduced legislation to block him from receiving a bonus.

During a lengthy interview, Steiner seemed surprised at points by his reception in Washington. He insisted he wasn't a “political person” and said he had no intention of stepping down despite the criticism. He dismissed heated congressional appearances as “theater” at odds with more substantive private interactions on Capitol Hill.

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't remember his comments, acknowledging a tendency to be “flippant.”

“That's funny,” he said. “I don't recall it.”

The White House didn't respond to a request for comment on Steiner's remarks or his stewardship of the Postal Service.

The Postal Service dates to Benjamin Franklin, the first postmaster general, whose portrait and bust are displayed in Steiner's office overlooking the Washington Wharf. The agency has more than 630,000 employees, dwarfing many Cabinet departments.

While the quickest way to top jobs in Trump's Washington is often by writing big checks, the 66-year-old Steiner doesn’t appear to have followed that course. He has largely donated to Republicans but also gave to John Kerry’s Democratic presidential campaign in 2004. Unlike his predecessor as postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, Steiner was not a major GOP donor or Trump backer.

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 “outcome oriented” and rarely political.

“He's going to follow the rules. He's going to follow the law,” Martin said. “I don't recall us ever talking politics.”

By the time a headhunter contacted Steiner about the postmaster general job, he was largely removed from daily corporate life and initially demurred.

“I talked to my wife, and we both agreed I was happily retired," he said.

He changed his mind, he said, during a visit to the beaches of Normandy, feeling a sense of civic duty.

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.

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 — all Republicans — await Senate confirmation. Steiner can be fired only by the board.

Steiner said he first met Trump along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the board's urging after he was already selected as postmaster general. Since then, he described a minimal relationship with the White House.

“We don't fly on the radar,” he said.

That is, until Trump revived his effort in March to crack down on mail voting. Steiner said he “wasn't in on the development piece” of the order and first saw it about a month before it was signed.

“They gave it to us to say, ‘Have your lawyers look at it, and how do you operationalize it?’” Steiner said.

The portal spurred a massive development effort inside the Postal Service while some states criticized it as federal overreach. A whistleblower report released by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., argued the system was hastily built and riddled with errors, though Steiner said he was confident it could have been unveiled around Sept. 15.

“The heavy lifting was clearly, clearly the IT work,” Steiner said.

Though the Supreme Court dispensed with the rule, the dynamics for the Postal Service don't get easier.

The agency posted a $9 billion net loss last year, and Steiner has warned it could soon run out of cash unless Congress lifts a $15 billion borrowing cap. Political hurdles have prevented potential cost savings from cutting service or closing some post offices.

And while Trump's executive order won't take effect, the Postal Service will still play a critical role in this year's elections. There are mounting concerns that mail ballots could be rejected for late postmarks. Steiner encouraged voters to get their ballots in a week before the election to avoid problems.

The Postal Service is a rare corner of government still viewed favorably with more than half of Americans, 56%, saying it was doing an “excellent” or “good” job in a Gallup poll conducted last year. That could change if the agency is seen as increasingly political.

Steiner, however, said Americans will judge the Postal Service by their experience of it.

“What they care about is when they get that wedding invitation after the wedding or when they send a package and it disappears,” he said. “If we want to have the trust of the American public, let's be the best service provider. Everything else is noise.”

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. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Postmaster General David Steiner poses for a photograph at the United States Postal Service headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

CAMPECHE, Mexico (AP) — Politicians and judges are increasingly attempting to shut down press freedoms in Mexico, raising concerns among journalism watchdog groups.

In 2025, a new lawsuit against journalists or media outlets was filed every six days in Mexico, 69 cases in total, according to Article 19, a press freedom watchdog, triple the previous year.

Politicians have discovered that lawsuits are “a much more effective way to silence the press because they give the impression of legality,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Tribuna, a 50-year-old daily newspaper in the southeastern state of Campeche, became the flagship media outlet during the administrations of the Institutional Revolutionary Party which governed the state for nearly a century.

Then Layda Sansores, of the ruling Morena party, won the 2021 gubernatorial election. And things quickly changed.

She pulled government advertising from Tribuna — advertising that was necessary for the paper to continue to publish. She started her own television program promoting her administration and demeaning journalists, handing out Oscar-style awards — called the “Golden Pinocchio” — to journalists she deemed the biggest “liars.”

Tribuna ran columns railing against her, and those columns sometimes went beyond her politics. Criticism intensified with gender-specific and homophobic attacks. Then in 2024, Tribuna, starved of revenue, ceased to print though it continued to publish online, including scathing articles against Sansores.

Sansores responded with several civil and criminal complaints against Jorge Luis González, who served as its editor for three decades and continues as a contributor, alleging moral damage, gender-based political violence and hate speech.

In mid-2025, one of Sansores' criminal cases against González led judges to bar him from journalism for two years and to have a judicial censor review Tribuna articles before online publication. Press freedom watchdogs strongly denounced the decision, arguing that prior censorship is unacceptable and concerned the decision might set a precedent.

González said he immediately appealed the measures and a judge temporarily suspended them pending a final ruling of the case.

Sansores has denied persecuting or censoring the press and says her lawsuits are to protect women. She did not respond to requests for comment.

Several local reporters say she also changed the way authorities try to control the press. Campeche officials now “stop you with lawsuits,” said Ronny Aguilar, a local journalist and digital content creator.

Reporters Without Borders has denounced the growing and widespread use of laws as weapons against the press, especially in the Americas.

U.S. President Donald Trump has banned three news outlets’ reporters from the White House, escalating his efforts — in the courts and through administrative action. The Associated Press also is suing following the president’s decision last year to bar AP reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One and some events in retaliation for the news outlet’s decision not to follow his lead in changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, which lies partially in Mexican and other waters.

In Mexico, the weaponization of the judicial system comes amid an increase in journalist killings. Seven journalists were killed this year, five of them in less than three months, one of the deadliest spikes in over a decade, according to CPJ.

Some of those targeted with lawsuits, including Veracruz crime reporter Rafael León, acknowledge that the experience has changed how they work. Although terrorism charges against León were dropped after President Claudia Sheinbaum intervened, he now reports less and works in fear, he said.

Sheinbaum has softened the hostile tone her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, used toward some journalists, but a new federal regulation to protect “audiences' rights” set to take effect this month has alarmed press watchdogs.

The president insists it will better protect the public’s right to complain about any publication without leading to censorship. Some groups fear it could allow the state to intervene in some disputes ahead of Mexico’s 2027 elections.

Leopoldo Maldonado, the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression, warned that although governments may have legitimate reasons to combat disinformation or hate speech, laws that turn the state and judges into arbiters of the truth “generally end very badly.”

Among other problems, he said, such laws often rely on vague concepts that should not be addressed through criminal law.

Legislation targeting fake news has proved problematic in Turkey, Malaysia and Singapore, Maldonado said. Counterterrorism laws in Africa’s Sahel region “are used against the political opposition” and journalists covering armed conflicts there. Citing the example of Russia, he warned that the use of the term “foreign agents” to restrict journalism is spreading across the Americas.

Many government officials fuel hate campaigns and there is a need to regulate the excessive power of digital platform owners and give civil society a greater voice in that process, Maldonado said.

In Campeche, the state Human Rights Commission and activists are promoting legislation to protect human rights defenders and journalists.

Meanwhile, in the building that once housed the Tribuna newsroom, boxed-up computers sit waiting to be sold, offices stay empty and printing presses stand idle. Only a TV studio is still active.

González's shooting of his weekly political commentary video show continues. And so do the lawsuits from government officials against journalists.

Follow AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Computer equipment sits idle in the former newsroom of the independent newspaper Tribuna that closed two years prior in Campeche, Mexico, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)

Photographs lie in the former newsroom of the independent newspaper Tribuna that closed two years prior in Campeche, Mexico, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)

A person reads a newspaper at a market in Campeche, Mexico, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)

The last edition of the independent newspaper Tribuna, which closed on Jan. 18, 2024, in Campeche, Mexico, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)

Jorge Luis González, former director of the independent newspaper Tribuna, left, and journalist Lorenzo Chim Caamal, host the program Expediente in Campeche, Mexico, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Zetina)