New York: Under fire over having to withdraw claims of government savings along with charges of reckless firings, billionaire Elon Musk doubled down, pushing to privatize both passenger railways and the US Postal Service. "We should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized," said Musk, US President Donald Trump's biggest campaign donor and now head of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, a controversial cost-cutting team.

According to Anadolu Agency, Musk made a virtual appearance at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference, where he called the state of US passenger rail "embarrassing" and said it is far behind other countries. He cited China's bullet trains as an example of far superior infrastructure, though he did not mention the comparative budgets of the countries' passenger railways.

Musk expressed a critical view of Amtrak, stating, "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." He argued that without the possibility of bankruptcy, there's no effective feedback loop for improvement.

In recent weeks, Musk faced scrutiny after boasting online of his team's efforts to cut government spending. He had to take down dozens of claims amounting to billions of dollars, admitting that some were posted multiple times or were for contracts that ended before Trump took office on January 20. Critics also charged that mass firings championed by Musk are both unlawful, as the money was allocated by Congress, and reckless, with significant numbers of workers dismissed from critical areas like disaster relief, nuclear safety, and fighting infectious disease.