As U.S. President Donald Trump and tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk engaged in a war of words over social media in early June 2025, many people online attributed a quote to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT.
According to a Reddit post, Sanders allegedly said: "Elon is calling for Trump's impeachment. MAGA is calling for Elon's deportation. Why not both?"
(Reddit user u/Pumuckl4Life)
Even though he has been a critic of Trump and Musk, Sanders never said the above words. We found no evidence in his publicized statements, in the news media or on his social media accounts to corroborate the claim. As such, we rate this claim as an incorrect attribution.
We reached out to Sanders for comment on whether he made the above statement. A spokesperson from his office denied the above claim.
We also looked for examples of Sander's comments to the media by searching for segments of the above quote on Google News. If Sanders had said this in public it would have been widely covered by news media publications. We also found no similar statements on Sander's Senate website or his social media accounts.
However, on June 5, the Facebook group U.S. Democratic Socialists did post the statement without attributing it to anyone.
Sanders has used similar language. In a June 6 post from his official campaign account on X. Sanders criticized both Trump and Musk by using their arguments to bolster his point:
Trump's right: The easiest way to save money is to eliminate the "Billions and Billions" in corporate welfare Elon Musk has received.
Musk's right: Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" is a "disgusting abomination" that must be defeated.
Let's do both. It'll be a win-win for America!
Sanders was referring to Trump's threats to cut off federal subsidies and contracts with Musk's companies, which could cost Musk billions of dollars. He also was referring to Trump's tax and spending bill, which Musk called a "disgusting abomination" on X. Since Trump's inauguration, Sanders has been traveling the country on a "Fighting Oligarchy Tour" looking to build up resistance to the Trump administration.
While Sanders did not advocate for Musk's deportation, in February 2020, he did vote to convict Trump in the Senate impeachment trial during his first administration. He also voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial in 2021.
Meanwhile in June 2025, Steve Bannon, a former aide to Trump, called for an investigation into Musk's immigration status: "They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status, because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately."