Bernie Sanders slams ‘President Elon Musk’ over efforts to derail funding plan | Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders has criticized “President Elon Musk” over the billionaire’s efforts to derail a bipartisan spending deal that would keep the government running for another three months.

“Democrats and Republicans have spent months negotiating a bipartisan agreement to fund our government,” Sanders, the independent senator for Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement.

“The richest man in the world, President Elon Musk, doesn’t like this. Will the Republicans kiss the ring?”

He added: “Billionaires cannot be allowed to run our government.”

Sanders was referring to the agreement Republicans and Democrats reached this week to prevent a government shutdown that would otherwise begin Saturday. The bill would extend the deadline to March 14.

However, less than 48 hours before implementation, the bill was attacked by Donald Trump and his allies, including JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy and Musk, the CEO of several companies including Tesla and SpaceX.

The spending bill also includes $100 billion in disaster relief, economic aid for farmers, a commitment to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, possible pay raises for members of Congress and a stadium site for the Washington Commanders, among other things.

On Wednesday, after the deal was announced, Musk, who will co-chair an agency Trump said he would create, the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), rejected the funding bill. He called it “criminal” and said it “shouldn’t happen.”

According to NBC News, Musk posted about the bill more than 100 times on X on Wednesday.

In his statements, he said that “any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in two years!”

In a post, Musk claimed that the bill provides for “funding of bioweapons laboratories,” although the screenshot of text he linked to refers to “biocontainment laboratories” that aim to conduct biomedical research to benefit public health and to support medical preparedness to combat infectious diseases.

In another post, Musk falsely claimed that the bill would provide a 40% pay raise for members of Congress. The Associated Press reported that the bill would remove a pay freeze provision that could allow a maximum match of 3.8% instead of 40%, noting that the last time members of Congress received a raise was in 2009.

Musk, who has an estimated net worth of $350 billion, spent more than $200 million to support Trump in this year’s election.

Andy Barr, a Republican congressman from Kentucky, said his “phone immediately rang” after Musk began criticizing the bill. “The people who elected us listen to Elon Musk.”

Maxwell Frost, a Democratic congressman from Florida, joined Sanders in condemning Musk’s influence, calling him “unelected Republican co-president Elon Musk.”

“All he had to do was make a few social media posts,” Frost said.

“The U.S. Congress agreed this week to fund our government,” Sanders said in a social media post on Wednesday. “Elon Musk, who has become 200 BILLION richer since Trump was elected, has objected.” He added: “Oligarchy is at work here.”