Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has joined tech mogul Elon Musk in condemning the Pentagon's handling of its $886 billion budget, drawing renewed attention to government inefficiencies. Sanders' criticism comes as President-elect Donald Trump moves forward with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative designed to address wasteful federal spending. Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have been appointed to lead the initiative.
On Sunday, Sanders posted on X, formerly Twitter, voicing his agreement with Musk's stance on defense spending. "Elon Musk is right," Sanders wrote. "The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It's lost track of billions. Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change."
Musk responded to Sanders' statement with two American flag emojis, signaling his approval. Musk, who has consistently criticized government spending and the growing national debt, has frequently used social media to highlight inefficiencies. He recently warned, "America is going bankrupt fast," and linked excessive government expenditures to inflation, stating, "ALL government spending is taxation. It is either direct taxation, like income tax, or indirect via inflation due to increasing the money supply."
Trump's DOGE initiative aims to overhaul how federal agencies operate. The program will provide outside guidance to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget. "DOGE will provide advice and guidance from outside of government and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large-scale structural reform and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before," Trump said in a statement.
Musk and Ramaswamy, who outlined their plans in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, emphasized that their work with DOGE will be conducted as volunteers. Their efforts aim to bring private-sector strategies to federal governance.
Representative Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) echoed Sanders' concerns in an interview with CNN, suggesting that Democrats could collaborate with Musk and DOGE to cut waste in the defense budget. "When it comes to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse and opening the 5 primes to more competition, there are Democrats...who will work with @elonmusk and @DOGE," Khanna wrote in a post on X. Musk replied, "Cool!"
The Pentagon's inability to pass its audits has raised significant questions about financial accountability. Over the past seven years, the Department of Defense has consistently failed to account for its massive budget, fueling bipartisan criticism. Sanders and Musk's alignment on the issue highlights a growing consensus on the need for reform, even across ideological divides.
Musk has pointed to other examples of government inefficiency, including California's High-Speed Rail Project, which has seen its projected cost soar from $33 billion in 2008 to as much as $127.9 billion in 2024. Despite receiving $6.8 billion in federal funding, the project remains incomplete. Musk shared a post from DOGE's X account about the delays, commenting, "The government needs to stop wasting your hard-earned money!"
In another post, Musk highlighted the national debt's impact on defense spending, noting, "The interest that we owe on our national debt is now higher than the defense budget. Over a trillion dollars and growing. The country is going to go bankrupt."
