New Yorkers chant 'USPS' following Biden's victory

Crowds gathered to celebrate Democratic candidate’s election win

New York City crowds cheered for a United States Postal Service (USPS) truck following Joe Biden’s election victory, months after Donald Trump’s repeatedly attacked the agency.

Following the announcement that Joe Biden had won the 2020 US election on Saturday morning, crowds of people in New York City flooded to the streets to celebrate.

A USPS truck drove by during the celebrations, and in reaction the crowd cheered and shouted “USPS, USPS,” as the driver beeped his horn towards the group in return.

The USPS became central to the election this year after mail-in-voting was encouraged because of fears of long queues on election day, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Read more: Joe Biden wins the 2020 US election - follow live updates

More Americans voted by mail than in any other year, as more than 100 million people voted early, in-person or via the postal service, largely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, Mr Trump repeatedly falsely claimed that an increase in mail-in-voting would lead to widespread voter fraud, and  refused extra funding to the postal service as a consequence.

In August, Mr Trump refused to provide $3.5bn (£2.6bn) to facilitate universal mail-in voting and $25bn (£19bn) to fund the USPS ahead of November’s presidential election.

The service was badly hit by the pandemic and lost $2.2bn (£1.6bn) between March and June, causing its postmaster general Louis DeJoy to ask Congress for financial support. Later in the month, a bill was passed to provide the USPS with the $25bn.

Speaking to Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo in August, Mr Trump said that he had refused to provide the funding because the Democrats needed it “in order to make the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots”.

He added: “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it. They don’t have the money to do the universal mail-in voting. So therefore, they can’t do it, I guess.

“Therefore, they can’t do the universal mail-in vote. It’s very simple. How are they going to do it if they don’t have the money to do it?”

Mr Trump once again railed against mail-in-voting this week, after he saw his lead in several key states diminish after the postal ballots were counted. Mail-in-votes were only counted in multiple states after election day. 

He baselessly accused the Democrats of attempting to “steal” the election, but there is no truth behind his claims.