Washington DC - After years of attacking billionaires, Senator Bernie Sanders appears to have found some common ground with the world's richest person, Elon Musk.

"Elon Musk is right. The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It’s lost track of billions," Sanders posted on X on Sunday.

"Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud," he continued. "That must change."

Musk, along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to head his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to "slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies."

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Opponents have warned the department's recommendations could involve cutting critical social spending while leaving thousands of federal workers without a job.

Representative Ro Khanna has also suggested bipartisan collaboration with DOGE to reduce the US' astronomical military spending, posting on X last week: "When it comes to waste, fraud, and abuse and opening the 5 primes [Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman] to more competition, there are Democrats on [the House Armed Services Committee] who will work with Elon Musk and DOGE."

Congress in 2024 approved $841.4 billion for the Pentagon – even as many Americans struggle to pay rent or afford health care, and people around the world suffer under US militarism and imperialism.

Sanders – a longtime critic of the US' enormous military spending – has in the past vocally opposed Musk's vast wealth accumulation and staggering inequality in America.

On Saturday, the senator released a statement reading, "Today in America, we have a political system that is increasingly controlled by the billionaire class. In the recent elections, just 150 billionaire families spent nearly $2 billion to get their candidates elected."

"Our job in the coming months and years is clear. We must defeat the oligarchs and create an economy and government that works for all, not just the few."

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Musk's super PAC reportedly spent around $200 million to help get Republican Trump elected to a second White House term.

Since Kamala Harris' November loss, Sanders has criticized Democrats' failure to address working-class concerns and to get big money out of politics.

In an interview published last week, the Vermont independent ruled out starting a third party at this time, after widespread speculation he might be contemplating such a move.