Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., criticized defense spending in a post on social platform X on Sunday, saying tech billionaire Elon Musk is “right.”
“Elon Musk is right. The Department of Defense, with an $886 billion budget, has failed seven consecutive audits. Billions of dollars are missing,” Sanders said. said in him post.
“Last year, only 13 senators voted against the military-industrial complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That has to change,” he added.
Last month, President-elect Trump appointed Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswami to a new “government efficiency initiative” aimed at “reducing excessive regulation and cutting wasteful spending” and reorganizing federal agencies. He was appointed as the Secretary of the Department of Economics (DOGE).
DOGE will “provide advice and guidance from outside the government” and work with the White House Office of Management and Budget, the president-elect said.
On Monday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) suggested in an interview on CNN that Democrats could work with President Musk's DOGE to cut the defense budget. The California Democrat criticized “waste, fraud and abuse” in the defense budget and said the Pentagon “has failed the last six or seven audits.”
Khanna also posted a clip from that day's CNN appearance on X.
“When it comes to reducing waste, fraud, and abuse and opening up the five primes to more competition, we have the Democrats.” [the House Armed Services Committee] Who will work with @elonmusk and @DOGE,” Khanna said in the post.
“Like!” Musk replied to Khanna's post.
Hill has contacted the Department of Defense for comment.
