By Christopher Rhodes
Blavity Reprinted
https://blavity.com/
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has slashed government spending and dismantled entire federal agencies and programs, with billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency leading the charge. Musk has now turned his attention to the United States Postal Service (USPS) and Amtrak, indicating that he wants both services in private hands.
Musk calls for privatization of mail, rail services
“I think logically we should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized,” CNN and Newsweek reported Musk told an audience at the Morgan Stanley Media & Telecom conference on Wednesday. “I think we should privatize the Post Office and Amtrak for example… We should privative everything we possibly can.”
Musk said of the national passenger rail service, “Amtrak is a sad situation. It’s like, if you’re coming from another country, please don’t use our national rail. It can leave you with a very bad impression of America.” Musk’s comments come as others, including Trump, have targeted the agencies for not being financially self-sufficient, Reuters reported. The Post Office posted a $9.5 billion loss in the most recent fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30. Amtrak, meanwhile, operated at a net loss of $705 million for the same period.
Amtrak, USPS provide service and access across the U.S.
Supporters of the two services note that the Post Office achieved a profit for the final quarter of the last fiscal year, while Amtrak finally saw ridership rebound to pre-COVID levels. More generally, proponents of USPS and Amtrak point out that the organizations provide public goods — universal mail service and national rail coverage — that can’t or won’t be matched by private providers. Amtrak reported nearly 33 million people used it during Fiscal Year 2024, including passengers in rural areas who a fully private rail service might not reach. The Post Office declared that in 2023, it serviced 665 million customers, delivering over 1 billion pieces of mail across 166 million delivery points.
What comes next?
According to Common Dreams, any attempts to privatize USPS or Amtrak would have to be approved by Congress, meaning that Trump, Musk, and DOGE could not simply shut down or sell the services. This fact is good news for the 600,000 people who work for the Post Office and the 21,000 Amtrak employees. Trump recently suggested merging USPS with the Department of Commerce, which would also be illegal without congressional approval. Amtrak responded to Musk’s comments by saying that its “business performance is strong“ but also indicating that it would work with the president to become profitable and create a “world-class passenger rail system.”
Trump and DOGE have pushed or even exceeded the boundaries of the law in efforts to dismantle large chunks of the federal government, expanding a campaign to include agencies like the Department of Education. Amtrak and the USPS are in their crosshairs, but these services are not yet at immediate risk of being privatized or discontinued.
