Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the former presidential candidate who stirred a movement of equality-concerned “Bernie Bros” before the “Tech Bros” and the so-called “broligarchy” emerged to support the billionaire populist President Donald Trump, is warning that Americans are in for a rude awakening.
Sanders notes that the working-class red MAGA hat-wearing faithful that fueled Trump’s election victory and peopled his rallies weren’t seated in the first row behind the President during his inauguration. Instead, the prime seating at Trump’s swearing-in was reserved for numerous super-billionaires — and relative latecomers to the MAGA movement — including the “three wealthiest men in America.”
The symbolism, which Sanders scans as a portrait of America as a fiefdom of the wealthy rather than a land of opportunity, causes Sanders grave concern. It’s a concern, demonstrated by the photo below, he believes should concern all Americans, as everyone “understands that the billionaire class now controls our government,” Sanders says.
When I started talking about Oligarchy, many people didn’t understand what I meant.
Well, that’s changed.
When the 3 wealthiest men in America sit behind Trump at his inauguration, everyone understands that the billionaire class now controls our government.
We must fight… pic.twitter.com/NuC3hnskQi
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 20, 2025
[NOTE: In a Fox News editorial, Sanders vowed to work with Trump when he is accountable to the populist appeals he made to the rally-goers and family kitchen table worriers: “President-elect Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 as an anti-establishment populist prepared to take on the political class and act on behalf of working families. When Trump is prepared to move forward in that direction, I will gladly support him. When he does not, I will vigorously oppose him.”
Sanders asserts these oligarchs seated behind the President aren’t the average “rich guys” who just want to buy more luxury houses. Instead, these are men who want to consolidate power and control the technologies that enable modern life and modern communications. “These guys,” Sanders says below, “are extremely dangerous.”
You may have heard Mr. Musk talking about a superior aristocracy of people with “super high IQs.”
Does he want to use technology to improve life for all?
No.
What he wants is even more wealth and even more power for the people on top. pic.twitter.com/9MPZBX4Ts5
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 18, 2025
MAGA defenders of Musk, who routinely castigate Sanders as a hypocrite, note that not all billionaires are Trump supporters. Both political parties court the wealthy and by some counts, the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris attracted more billionaires to her campaign than Trump (as shown below).
83 billionaires donated to Kamala, 52 to Trump. https://t.co/ixqTULEy4h
— Jolly Roger (@dontcallmeraylo) January 20, 2025
Sanders argues that Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos — with their media properties and other far-flung business interests — present a power-hungry concentration that is of a different nature.
Sanders has been at odds with Musk for years, responding in 2021 to a Sanders post about taxing the rich with the words “I keep forgetting you’re still alive.”
I keep forgetting that you’re still alive
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2021