Bernie Sanders Says Elon Musk Is ‘Clearly Running The Show’ At DOGE

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday said Elon Musk “is clearly running the show” at the nonofficial Department of Government Efficiency, warning that the U.S. is moving “into an authoritarian form of society” under the Trump administration.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday was forced to clarify that Musk “has been tasked with overseeing DOGE on behalf of the president,” after an earlier administration court filing said the billionaire isn’t an employee of the operation.

In an interview with CNN’s “The Source,” Sanders said Musk’s specific title within DOGE is immaterial.

“The issue is not who is technically the administrator,” Sanders said. “Elon Musk is clearly running the show.”

Sanders raised concerns about Musk’s conflicts of interest given his business interests, as well as his efforts to use his platform to promote far-right parties around the world.

Sanders suggested Congress actually has limited oversight over Musk’s work within the federal government given the free rein Trump has given him. The senator poked fun at host Kaitlan Collins’ comment that the U.S. Senate is part of the legislative branch and therefore a “co-equal branch of government.”

“Are we?” Sanders asked. “I kind of thought so, but I think you have to explain that to the president.”

Sanders warned the country is in a “very dangerous moment,” noting Trump’s effort to “usurp the powers of Congress” and challenge the powers of the courts.

“This country is moving very rapidly under Trump into an authoritarian form of society,” he said.

Sanders said he will be “active” in trying to rally Americans to fight against this current.

“At the end of the day, the struggle against Trump, the struggle against oligarchy, which is led by Elon Musk, the struggle against authoritarianism, the fight to make sure that the working class of this country gets a fair shake, that is not going to be won here on Capitol Hill,” he said. “It’s going to be won by millions of people all over this country.”

Musk and Trump have dismissed concerns around the businessman’s role in government.

“I haven’t asked the president for anything ever,” Musk told Fox News in an interview broadcast Tuesday, adding that he would recuse himself if a conflict of interest were to arise.