AOC, Bernie Sanders Slam Trump Admin’s ‘Disdain’ for Working People

The Democratic Party is a mess. Donald Trump is systematically dismantling the United States government in order to consolidate power around himself, and last week Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) abdicated what little congressional power Democrats have left by supporting the Republican resolution to fund the government. The president was pleased. The Democratic Party’s favorability is, not surprisingly, now at a record low, according to a CNN poll released earlier this week.

There are still some signs of life within the opposition to Trump, however. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been holding rallies around the nation, warning Americans of the oligarchy taking shape. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a fierce critic of Schumer’s decision to support the GOP’s spending resolution, joined Sanders on Thursday for events in Arizona and Nevada. Social media users posted pictures of long lines to get into both events.

“Our fight is to make sure we remain a democracy. One person, one vote. Not billionaires buying elections,” Sanders said in Arizona behind a podium that read “FIGHT OLIGARCHY.”

“Now that he’s in power we can see it as clear as day,” AOC said of Trump in Nevada. “He’s handed the keys to Elon Musk and is selling this country for parts to the richest people on the planet for a kickback.”

Musk — whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has spent the past two months indiscriminately slashing the federal workforce and vital government services — spent nearly $300 million last year to elect Trump and Republicans. The president has granted the unelected quasi-official an unprecedented amount of power while using the White House to boost the value of Musk’s private holdings — including by actively pitching Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Musk is set to receive a top-secret briefing on plans for war with China, where he has significant business. Trump and other administration officials have denied this.

Musk has repeatedly insisted that his slash-and-burn project is part of an effort to return the power to the people. AOC and Sanders called bullshit on Thursday, driving home the indifference — if not disdain — the Trump administration holds for working class Americans.

“For all the big talk that Republicans and the Trump administration like to flap about working people, if you actually listen carefully, every once in a while they let the masks slip about what they actually think about us,” AOC said in Nevada before citing an instance last week in which Trump lawyer and adviser Alina Habba mocked AOC for having worked in a bar, suggesting the Democrat wasn’t capable of “intellectual” thought because she had “served” people.  

“Understand that this kind of disdain for working people by the most powerful people in this country doesn’t just come from not being raised right,” AOC continued. “It’s a shorthand for Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s entire political agenda, and a certain ugly kind of politics: lying to and screwing over working people so they can steal from our health care and Social Security and veterans care to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest and bailouts for their crypto billionaire friend. There’s a word for this: corruption.”

The Trump administration has indeed been making cuts to the nation’s health care systems, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Hours after AOC’s remarks in Nevada, Trump’s Social Security chief threatened to “turn off” the system entirely in response to a federal judge ruling that Musk and DOGE couldn’t have unfettered access to the personal and private data of hundreds of millions of Americans.