The Postman’ star Kevin Costner reacts to Trump’s USPS controversy: ‘Criminal’

The postal service’s crisis affects mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic

Kevin Costner didn’t hold back on his thoughts about President Trump’s “criminal” interference with the United States Postal Service in a recent interview.

Costner played a drifter who posed as a USPS mailman in the 1997 movie “The Postman,” which was supposed to be set in 2013. The film shows the actor restoring democracy by delivering letters to and from other towns after a totalitarian leader tries to take over one Western town.

On “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday, the talk show host did a spoof trailer of a re-release of “The Postman.”

“In its day, a critical and box office disaster. But today, chillingly accurate,” a narrator said in the spoof.  “Looks like somebody owes Kevin Costner an apology.”

Costner reacted to the spoof and gave his opinion on Trump’s war with the USPS.

“Listen, a movie is what it is when it comes out. It has a chance to be revisited, and I was always kind of proud of it,” he told The Daily Beast on Thursday.

He continued: “I thought that I had made a mistake not starting out the movie with, ‘Once upon a time…’ because it’s kind of like a fairy tale. ‘Once upon a time, when things got really rotten, the only thing that could stand the test of time was the post office. The only thing people could count on.’ I didn’t say that, and I should have. Because it is like a fairy tale you’d read to your children at night. That’s how I did the movie.

“It’s terrible. It’s terrible,” the actor said of Trump’s meddling with the postal service. “Nothing is surreal. Everything is highly real, and it’s dangerous. And it’s shameful.”

Costner added: “History will judge you.”

“What you have to try to lean on is that every four years we get to decide whether we’re going in the right direction or we’re not,” “The Bodyguard” star said. “And we now, because of the way the country is set up—which is beautiful—we have that opportunity.

“And anyone who would interfere with that process in a deliberate way to have an outcome—that’s criminal. And it spits on 200 years of freedom,” Costner said.

The “Hidden Figures” star suggested that if people are fit to vote in person, they should.

“So this is what you do: you wear your mask and you go vote,”  Costner concluded.

The U.S. Postal Service reported a $4.5 billion loss for the quarter ending in March prior to the steep economic impact of coronavirus pandemic. The loss of revenue is expected to have a huge impact on the fate of mail-in ballots during the 2020 presidential election.

Meanwhile, Trump has severely criticized mail-in voting for months. Last week he blamed Democrats for holding up a deal on the coronavirus relief package while speaking to Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.

Trump also told Fox News’ John Roberts that he would be willing to offer the $25 billion for the USPS, including $3.5 billion in election resources, should Democrats be willing to cave on some of the demands Trump has voiced.