Vermont socialist has spent millions on private jet travel over the years
Sen. Bernie Sanders has crisscrossed the country on his nationwide Fighting Oligarchy Tour to rail against billionaires and supposed “oligarchs” like Elon Musk—while traveling like an oligarch himself.
Campaign expenditures released Tuesday and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show Sanders’s main campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, spent $221,723 chartering private jets during the first quarter of 2025, with the first payment coming just days before the launch of his tour in February.
“We will not accept a rigged economy where working people struggle while billionaires become richer,” Sanders said during the tour’s latest event in California on Tuesday. “We have got to create an economy that works for working people, not just Mr. Musk and the billionaire class.” But Sanders has had no issue splurging on private jets far beyond the means of working people, even as he has ramped up his attacks on the rich.
The revelation is just the latest contrast between his socialist rhetoric and his millionaire lifestyle. The Vermont senator used to rail against “millionaires and billionaires” in his speeches denouncing oligarchy—until he became a millionaire himself shortly before his 2020 presidential campaign, at which point he trained his fire on “billionaires.” During that campaign, fellow candidate Michael Bloomberg mocked Sanders for amassing wealth while preaching socialism for the masses. “The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses,” Bloomberg said in a 2020 debate.
Overall, Friends of Bernie Sanders, which manages the Fighting Oligarchy Tour, contracted three firms that charter jets: Cirrus Aviation Services, N-Jet, and Ventura Jets, according to the filings. Payments to those three firms accounted for nearly 75 percent of the campaign’s total transportation costs during that period. Sanders has spent millions of dollars in campaign funds on private jet travel over the years.
The campaign spent another $63,830 on commercial airline tickets. It also spent nearly $41,000 on lodging and $248,245 on event production.
Friends of Bernie Sanders did not respond to a request for comment.
Sanders launched his tour on Feb. 22 in Nebraska and has since held a dozen events in Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and California. The next event is scheduled for Wednesday in Montana.
The Vermont senator has been joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), who usually introduces him at the events. Ocasio-Cortez, for her part, was spotted flying first-class to one of the rallies in Las Vegas last month.
