Taylor Swift calls Donald Trump a blatant cheat for refusing US Postal Service funding it needs to handle mail-in votes
- The US president has not committed to bailout funding for the postal service, which is slowing mail delivery to cut costs ahead of expected mail-in voting
- Swift urged her nearly 87 million Twitter followers to request a presidential election ballot and to vote early to ensure their ballot is counted in November
US pop star Taylor Swift has called out President Donald Trump for his actions related to the postal service in a tweet that urged her nearly 87 million Twitter followers to request a ballot and to vote early.
“Trump’s calculated dismantling of USPS [US Postal Service] proves one thing clearly: He is well aware that we do not want him as our president,” she tweeted on Saturday. “He’s chosen to blatantly cheat and put millions of Americans’ lives at risk in an effort to hold on to power.”
She continued: “Donald Trump’s ineffective leadership gravely worsened the crisis that we are in and he is now taking advantage of it to subvert and destroy our right to vote and vote safely. Request a ballot early. Vote early.”
Swift’s tweet comes amid ongoing struggles at the USPS, the result of years-long financial woes that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Further complicating the postal service are cost-cutting measures implemented by new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a former Trump donor, that have caused delays in service to some parts of the US.
The turbulence comes as many states take steps to bolster their mail-in-voting programmes amid the novel coronavirus pandemic to provide more opportunity to cast a ballot without showing up in person on election day.