"Political madman" Musk stirs up another storm: supports privatization of US Postal Service and railway passenger companies.

Elon Musk, the billionaire who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the United States, said on Wednesday that the United States Postal Service (USPS) and Amtrak should be privatized. The founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla is currently providing practical plans and suggestions to President Donald Trump, who is considering returning to the White House, for significant streamlining of the US government structure and federal budget. "I believe that logically, any government agency or state-owned enterprise that can be reasonably privatized should be privatized," Musk said at a key meeting at Morgan Stanley. "For example, we should privatize the USPS and Amtrak...we should privatize all agencies or complex state-owned enterprises that can be privatized as much as possible." However, he mentioned that these privatization initiatives may require formal approval from the US Congress. Last month, Trump mentioned the possibility of merging the USPS with the Department of Commerce, a move that Democrats say would violate US federal law. Statistics show that the USPS has accumulated losses exceeding $100 billion since 2007, with a loss of $9.5 billion in the twelve months ending on September 30. However, earlier this month, it unexpectedly announced a profit of $1.44 billion in the fourth quarter. With the widespread use of email, its first-class mail volume has dropped by about 80% since 1997, reaching the lowest level since 1968. Regarding Musk's privatization proposal, the USPS declined to comment on media reports. In December, Amtrak announced that its passenger volume in 2024 exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2019 for the first time, with a record-breaking 32.8 million passenger trips, representing a 15% increase from 2023. In the twelve months ending on September 30, the national railway company reported an adjusted operating loss of approximately $705 million, a 9% decrease from the 2023 fiscal year. Musk stated that compared to China's high-speed rail, Amtrak is "in a precarious position and will leave ordinary people and foreign tourists with a very poor impression of the United States". In response to Musk's latest comments, Amtrak stated on Wednesday that its "business performance is very strong, with record-high passenger volume and revenue...we are legally authorized to operate a national network service and are expected to achieve a profit at the operating level for the first time in history during this administration". Amtrak announced in March an expansion of passenger rail services on the East Coast of the United States, with the goal of doubling passenger volume nationwide to 66 million by 2040. In 2021, the US Congress approved $66 billion in funding for railway projects as part of a large-scale infrastructure bill, with $22 billion allocated to Amtrak for the next five years in addition to regular funding. During his first presidential term, Trump made multiple attempts to reduce funding for Amtrak, but the company received approximately $2.4 billion in annual federal funding under the Biden administration last year. Despite low global sales due to backlash against Tesla and opposition to Trump's MAGA ideology, Tesla's CEO Musk continues to focus most of his energy on DOGE, pushing for comprehensive reform of the US government and streamlining the federal employee structure to reduce spending under the Trump-led US government, with the ultimate goal of significantly reducing the growing budget deficit. Recently, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Musk has been making significant changes in the US federal government and has been interfering in European politics. Musk and his young team at DOGE are deeply investigating corruption issues in several federal government departments and are aiming to reduce the government's spending by up to $2 trillion, even possibly dismantling some inefficient departments that have long held high budgets. Under the DOGE reform, tens of thousands of federal employees in the US have been laid off or offered buyout plans to voluntarily resign. Under Musk's leadership, DOGE has faced condemnation from US government officials, Democrats, and Republican financial factions against the MAGA movement, demanding that Trump restrain Musk. Recently, American citizens who have long been dissatisfied with Musk and the MAGA movement have taken to the streets to protest, calling for the boycott of Tesla electric cars and urging investors to sell Tesla stocks. The selling of stocks of Tesla, led by Musk, is seen as a response from Democratic financial factions, followers, and so-called "old-school political forces" within the US government, leading to a significant drop in Tesla's stock price, with a nearly 30% drop in February. Currently, Europe is experiencing a "anti-Tesla storm" alongside the US. In January of this year, Tesla's sales in Europe plummeted by nearly 50%, partly due to European dissatisfaction with Musk's frequent interference in European politics and his increasingly expanding influence in the political and business world.