Bernie Sanders surprisingly praises DOGE: "Elon Musk is right"

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) surprised the public by praising Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Vermont senator weighed in on his X account and was enthusiastic about the work that both Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have ahead of them, especially regarding the Pentagon.

"Elon Musk is right. The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It’s lost track of billions," Sanders wrote on his social media account.

"Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change," he added.

Musk himself responded to Sanders by commenting with two American flags. He was joined by Matt Gaetz, now an ex-congressman, who commented the following, "Welcome, Bernie."

In mid-November, Trump announced that Musk and Ramaswamy would restructure government spending and implement reforms to make the federal government more efficient.

In a recent opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal, the two assured that they will focus their work on three main goals: "regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings." They added, "We will particularly focus on driving change through executive actions based on existing legislation rather than passing new laws."

In terms of impact, reducing regulations would allow for "at least" commensurate cuts in the government workforce.

"A drastic reduction in federal regulations provides sound industrial logic for mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy. (...) Not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited," they continued in their op-ed.