Bernie Sanders calls Trump’s second term the scariest in his lifetime

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., warned that the U.S. has become a more dangerous country to live in following the victory of President Donald Trump and the ascendancy of billionaires to political influence like Tesla CEO, Elon Musk.

“These are, you know, the scariest times in my lifetime, that’s all,” Sanders said in an interview with Pod Save America. “I think that’s objectively the truth. You know, it is not just [that] they want to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut programs for working people. Frankly, that’s happened before.”

Sanders has given multiple speeches criticizing the proximity of Musk and other billionaires to the White House, claiming in response to the president’s speech to a joint session of Congress that the Trump administration “is a government of the billionaire class by the billionaire class, and for the billionaire class.”

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Sanders said that the true danger of the Trump administration is the combined “power of the oligarchy in general.” 

“You combine that with Mr. Musk owning Twitter and able to send out his messages to hundreds of millions of people,” Sanders continued. 

“You combine that with the fact that people like Bezos, the second-wealthiest person in the country, fired or got rid of most of his editorial staff and is going to convert them into a right-wing thing,” Sanders said. “Combine that with the fact that Trump is suing major media outlets and is threatening to investigate PBS and NPR.”

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“So, it’s not only the power of money, it’s also combined with that — the movement towards authoritarianism,” Sanders said. 

The independent senator argued that Trump’s actions were unprecedented in its disdain for the constitutional system.

“When Trump unilaterally cuts federal funding that was passed by Congress that is illegal, that is unconstitutional,” he added. 

“He’s moving aggressively in all these areas,” Sanders said, arguing that Trump has made significant progress at eroding the political regime that the Founding Fathers created. “Yeah, there was gravity in my voice. This is a scary moment.” 

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.