Elon Musk calls for the privatization of USPS and Amtrak. This is a move to end the reliance on taxpayer support.
Elon Musk, who has encouraged President Donald Trump to reduce government waste and reduce federal labor, is calling for the privatization of US Postal Service (USPS) and passenger rail operator Amtrak.
“The logic is that anything that can be reasonably privatized needs to be privatized,” Musk said at the Morgan Stanley conference on March 5th. “I think we should privatize post offices and Amtrak, for example.”
Amtrak, a government-owned company founded in 1970, reported an adjusted operating loss of $705 million in the previous fiscal year.
Government-owned USPS has also accumulated more than $100 billion in losses since 2007, including $9.5 billion for the 12 months ended September 30, 2024.
Neither Amtrak nor USPS responded to requests for comment on Musk’s comments at each publication time.
The National Letter Carrier Association (NALC) has expressed its opposition to the idea of masks to privatize USPS, highlighting the service’s public mission.
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“Privatized postal services will have a significantly lower cost structure, adapt to changing customer needs, make business decisions without political interference, and access private capital markets to fund operational improvements without burdening taxpayers,” the proposal states.
Calling the USPS “a tremendous loser for the country,” Trump said the purpose of such a move is to have a “post office that works well and doesn’t lose a ton of money.”
Trump has also repeatedly pushed to cut down on Amtrak’s federal funds. His past budget proposals argued that Amtrak’s funding should be reduced by 40-50%, eliminated long-distance routes, and redirected resources to a high-traffic corridor.
Musk criticized Amtrak as a “sad situation” when comparing US rail services to China’s high-speed systems, saying it would “lead a very bad impression of America.”
