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 spent months negotiating a bipartisan agreement to fund our government,” said Sanders, the independent senator for Vermont who votes with Democrats, in a statement.
“The richest man on Earth, President Elon Musk, doesn’t like it. Will Republicans kiss the ring?”
He added: “Billionaires must not be allowed to run our government.”
Sanders was referring to the deal reached by Republicans and Democrats this week to prevent a government shutdown, which would otherwise begin on Saturday. The bill would extend the deadline to 14 March.
With less than 48 hours to go, however, the bill came under attack from Donald Trump and his allies, including JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy and Musk, the CEO of various companies including Tesla and SpaceX.
The spending bill also includes $100bn in disaster aid, economic assistance for farmers, a commitment to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, potential pay raises for Congress members and a stadium site for the Washington Commanders, among other things.
On Wednesday after the deal was announced, Musk, who is set to co-lead an agency Trump claims he’ll create, the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), opposed the funding bill. He called it “criminal” and said that it “must not pass”.
Musk posted about the bill more than 100 times on X on Wednesday, according to NBC News.
Among 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 2 years!”
In one post, Musk alleged the bill was “funding bioweapon labs”, even though the screenshot of the text that he linked to refers to “biocontainment laboratories” that aim to conduct biomedical research to support public health and medical preparedness to combat infectious diseases.
In another post, Musk claimed erroneously that the bill includes a 40% pay increase for members of Congress. The Associated Press reported that the bill would remove a pay-freeze provision that could allow for a maximum adjustment of 3.8% – not 40% – and noted that the last time members of Congress got a pay raise was in 2009.
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Musk, who has an estimated net worth of $350bn, spent more than $200m to help elect Trump in this year’s election.
Andy Barr, a Republican member of Congress from Kentucky, said his “phone was ringing off the hook” after Musk began criticizing the bill. “The people who elected us are listening to Elon Musk.”
Maxwell Frost, a Democrat member of Congress from Florida, echoed Sanders and decried Musk’s influence, calling him “Republican Unelected Co-President Elon Musk”.
“All he had to do was make a few social media posts,” Frost said.
“The US Congress this week came to an agreement to fund our government,” Sanders said in a social media post on Wednesday. “Elon Musk, who became $200 BILLION richer since Trump was elected, objected.” He added: “This is oligarchy at work.”