Bernie Sanders slams Donald Trump, Elon Musk in ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ stop in Iowa City

Bernie Sanders slammed President Donald Trump on Saturday and said he presents “unprecedented crises.” The senator criticized Elon Musk and billionaires collectively as part of a town hall speaking series in front of a capacity crowd in Iowa City.

Sanders spoke at the Englert Theatre for 45 minutes. He critiquing Musk and was harshly critical of Trump’s actions in the first few weeks of his presidency, deriding cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, national parks and more.

More: How have President Donald Trump’s policies affected Iowa? We’re tracking the impact.

Sanders admitted that the pictures he was painting were dark, but attempted to inspire hope in the crowd by invoking the past victories in independence from England, fights for women’s rights, equal rights and abolition of slavery. He also implored the audience to act in several calls for action.

“If there has ever been a time to stand up and fight back, now is that time,” Sanders said.

Sanders says Trump presents ‘crises unprecedented in modern times’

Lines circled the block for the event more than an hour before doors opened despite temperatures in the teens. Attendees of all ages packed the theater. An overflow crowd also packed in and around a conference room a few blocks away near the Bread Garden Market, where Sanders stopped after his remarks.

Sanders set the tone for his speech by declaring in the opening minute that the presidency of Trump presents “crises unprecedented in our modern history.”

“What we do now, in the coming days, in the coming weeks, in the coming months will impact not only our lives, but the lives of our kids, the lives of our grandkids and in fact, the very well-being of the planet in terms of climate,” Sanders said.

He said it will not be politicians in Washington, D.C. that will defeat “Trumpism,” but millions of Americans in Iowa, Nebraska, where he spoke last night, Vermont, the state he represents, and “in every state in this country” that will have to step up.

In ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour Bernie Sanders calls for action

“If you want to know who’s running the U.S. government, simply take a look at Trump’s inauguration,” Sanders said, specifically referencing the presence of Musk, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the Jan. 20 event.

He pointed to Musk as an example of a billionaire using his political power to enrich himself and called him “arguably the most important person in the country, more powerful than Trump.”

Sanders claimed Musk spent more than $270 million to get Trump elected, saying, “You get one vote, they buy elections.” He was also critical of Musk’s shuttering of the U.S. Agency of International Development, USAID, which he said helps the poorest children and adults across the world.

“That the richest person on Earth is forcing children, the very poorest children to go hungry and unnecessarily die is a moral outrage,” Sanders said.

He urged audience members to take action, to call U.S. Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks and urge her to vote against any legislation that offers tax cuts to billionaires and slashes Medicaid, education and housing. Sanders said Republicans’ three-vote majority means it takes only two “no” votes to kill these legislative proposals.

Sanders’ two-part “Fighting Oligarchy” speech targeted locations where Republicans won by slim margins in the 2024 general election. In Iowa’s 1st District, which includes Johnson County, Associated Press data showed Miller-Meeks was victorious by a margin of 798 votes, one of the tightest races in the country.

Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which is home to Omaha, where Sanders spoke on Friday night, was won by less than 6,000 votes by incumbent Don Bacon, according to the AP.

Intro speakers provide individual view of Sanders’ speech

Several speakers proceeded Sanders, including a University of Iowa student, a veteran, a nurse, a former National Park ranger and several local unionizers.

They spoke of issues Sanders has long championed, including student loan debt, health care reform, union support and oligarchy, highlighting their personal stories.

Patrick Kearns, a representative for employees of UI Veterans Affairs, said the VA is the “best case for single-payer health care that there is,” and joked that the biggest flaw is that it does not provide profits for billionaires. He also works as a nurse at the Iowa City VA Hospital.

He said it is an “honor” to provide health care to people who do not have to think about whether they can afford it, only whether they need it. The Trump administration, Kearns said, has called VA doctors and nurses “criminals, lazy, non-productive and dozens of other insults.”

“For President Trump, public service is a punch line and just one more path for self-enrichment,” Kearns said. “The Musk-Trump plan is to break the government. It’s not a downsize, it’s not a layoff, it’s not a right-sizing. It is an intentional destruction of the fabric of government.”

Trump and Musk, he said, expected federal employees to “run and hide” when they were presented with the opportunity to resign and retain full pay through the fall and said the “scam” was “rejected.”

Brian Gibbs, a recently fired park ranger at Effigy Mounds in northeast Iowa, began his remarks by noting tens of things that, “I am,” including “a place where I told my spouse I first loved her,” “a college kid’s dream job,” “the smiling face that greets you at the front door.” He also said he is “the fat on the bone” and “being trimmed as a consequence of the popular vote.”

Gibbs was echoing his now-viral Facebook post announcing his dismissal, garnering 97,000 reactions, 238,000 shares and 15,000 comments.

“Things are not OK. I am not OK,” Gibbs said. “This is the second time in under five years a dream job I have worked has been eliminated and now I may need to uproot my family again. Please, friends, stay present. Do not avert your gaze.”

Sanders injects hope into closing remarks of ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour

“This is not the first difficult moment that our country has faced,” Sanders said.

Invoking memories from 250 years ago, Sanders recalled that the founders decided to take on the king of England and some shrugged it off, saying it was not possible and “They’re too powerful.”

He also pointed to fights for the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, unionization and more. These fights were not easy, Sanders said, but the people eventually won.

“These are very, very tough times,” Sanders said. “We’re taking on people with incredible wealth and power. They own the media. They own the political process. And sometimes, I know it can become overwhelming. We can feel despair. But in the past, Americans stood up. They fought back. They won. We can do the same thing.”

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Bernie Sanders calls on Iowans to ‘stand up and fight back’

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