Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called tech billionaire Elon Musk a “smart guy” and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “right” about America’s “unhealthy society,” as they prepare to take leadership positions in President-elect Trump’s next administration.
In an interview with Business Insider on Tuesday, Sanders listed areas where he could find common ground with Musk, someone he’s previously criticized as a threat to democracy.
Musk has been chosen to co-lead Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency and has promised to cut back on spending.
“If somebody on the other side has a good idea, sure, I’ll work with them,” Sanders told the outlet.
He noted that many things Musk did during Trump’s campaign were “really ugly,” but acknowledged he is a “very smart guy” who is right to call for an independent audit of the Defense Department.
“We need a strong military, but we don’t need all the waste and profiteering and the fraud that exists in the Pentagon right now,” he said.
Sanders also agreed with Musk about cutting defense spending in a post on social platform X earlier in the week.
“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 said in the Sunday post. “Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change.”
Sanders, a co-chair of the Senate health committee, also found common ground with Kennedy.
Kennedy has been chosen to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). He will likely face a difficult confirmation process in the Senate due to his controversial health opinions and plans to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Sanders and Kennedy both aim to take on processed foods across the country.
“When Kennedy talks about an unhealthy society, he’s right,” Sanders told Business Insider. “The amount of chronic illness that we have is just extraordinary.”
Sanders noted the millions of people across the country living with obesity and diabetes and the impacts not only on the health care system, but others, too.
“We want our people to have long lives, productive lives, happy lives. That’s what we want,” he said. “And if the industry is giving our kids food that’s making them overweight, leading to diabetes and other illnesses, clearly that’s an issue that we’ve got to deal with.”
Sanders mentioned he thinks Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stance is “kind of crazy” and a conspiracy theory, but overall, “some of what he’s saying is not crazy.”