Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Wednesday that some of billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk’s bold steps to combat waste in the federal government are “illegal.”
“There’s nothing wrong with looking for waste in existing bureaucracies. “I think we can do a lot to get rid of the waste, fraud, and excessive bureaucracy that exists in government — especially, by the way, in the Defense Department,” Sanders said Wednesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
“What is wrong right now is one simple reality: What Musk is doing is illegal and unconstitutional,” Sanders told reporters.
Musk’s team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has implemented sweeping changes to the executive branch in the first weeks of President Trump’s administration, prompting critics to question the legal basis for some of his actions.
The billionaire moved to keep federal employees out of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which Congress funds annually through appropriations bills for the State Department and foreign operations.
He gained access to the Treasury Department’s federal payment system, and under Musk’s influence, many federal employees were offered buyouts.
“You cannot go into an agency like USAID and essentially fire everybody and get rid of that agency,” Sanders told reporters. “That’s an agency that was created by Congress.”
“They want to get rid of USAID. Fine. Come to Congress. “Make your case,” he added. “You can’t do it unilaterally.”
Sanders also stated in the interview that he believes the United States government has become an oligarchy. He criticized Musk for spending more than $200 million to boost Trump’s campaign in the 2024 election cycle and noted that, already, Musk’s net worth has increased by more than $150 million since Trump was sworn in.
“You tell me whether or not we are living in an oligarchy,” Sanders said. “And I think the function of government under Trump, under Elon Musk, will not be to serve ordinary people, but to make the very richest people in this country even richer.”
