U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders warned the packed Englert Theater about encroaching Trumpism, oligarchy, and authoritarianism at a campaign event Saturday morning. 

The 83-year-old independent from Vermont addressed nearly 2,000 Iowans in both the Englert and at an overflow event at Bread Garden. Sanders criticized President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, outlining the dangers to the working class when the ultra wealthy control the government.  

Sanders called on the crowd to join in a strong grassroots movement to change the direction the U.S. is currently headed in, shifting priorities to focus on helping the working class. 

“In my view — and I say this with some knowledge and experience as a U.S. senator — Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the D.C. beltway, for better or worse, that is not going to happen,” Sanders said. “It will only be defeated by millions of Americans in Iowa, in Vermont, in Nebraska, in every state in this country, who come together in a strong grassroots movement.” 

The senator pointed to the U.S.’s rising income and wealth inequality as a major issue. Sanders said the top one percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of Americans, and politicians like Trump are working to make the rich richer. 

Sanders raised concern over the Reconciliation Bill, proposed legislation spearheaded by Trump which would extend tax cuts. Sanders said the bill will give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the billionaire class. 

The tax cut extension would lower rates for almost all Americans, but would benefit the wealthiest taxpayers the most. 

“While the very, very wealthy become wealthier, the reality facing ordinary Americans is somewhat different today. Sixty percent of our people in the richest country in the history of the world are living paycheck to paycheck,” Sanders said.  

A 2024 survey by CNBC found 65 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. 

The reason for his stop in Iowa City, Sanders said, was because a Republican won a seat in Congress by a relatively small margin. 

Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks earned her third term in Congress in November by less than 800 votes. 

In a statement to The Daily Iowan, Miller-Meeks said the Reconciliation Bill will block a 25 percent tax hike for the average southeast Iowa taxpayer, which she claimed Sanders wants.

“Millionaire Bernie Sanders believes in higher taxes for Iowans. He’s a radical,” Miller-Meeks said. “Iowans know better.” 

Sanders also underscored Trump and Musk’s enormous political power. He said Musk donated $270 million to Trump’s campaign. 

“And his reward for that contribution is that he is now arguably the most important person in government, more powerful than Trump,” Sanders said. 

Along with oligarchy, Sanders said the U.S. must also fight against authoritarianism, a shift he said Trump is moving the country toward. 

Sanders referred to Trump’s Feb. 15 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, which read, “He who saves his Country does not violate any law.” 

Sanders said this means Trump believes he can do anything he wants for any reason, including ignoring Congress, ignoring the courts, and acting above the law. 

This isn’t just talk, Sanders said, but is shown in Trump’s recent actions, including an attempt to suspend federal grants and programs. 

Trump also launched the Department of Government Efficiency, which has been gutting the federal government and firing thousands of federal workers. 

Sanders said Trump’s actions, including dismembering agencies established by Congress such as USAID, have been unconstitutional, illegal, and immoral. 

“USAID helps to keep alive some of the very poorest children and people throughout the world,” Sanders said. “That the richest person on earth is forcing children, the poorest children, to go hungry and unnecessarily die, is a moral outrage.” 

Sanders said under Trump, the U.S. is facing a series of crises unprecedented in modern history, and how people act and respond to his actions will have an impact for generations. 

UI students discuss the cost of college, DEI, and health care 

University of Iowa students opened the event, discussing the cost of college, health care and insurance, and Costco’s recent unionization. 

Ijeoma Ogbonna, a fourth-year UI student, advocated for free public college.

Ogbonna said despite doing things the “right way,” getting good grades, applying for scholarships, grants, and financial aid, she is still burdened by the debt for her college education. 

America must invest fully in its future, she said, and the way to achieve this is to increase access to higher education by removing its biggest barrier — the cost. 

“What haunts me most is, will I have to defer the journey I want to be on and the livelihood I want until I can pay the bill?” she said. “And how long will that take? Five to 10 years? 20 or never? Well, I just have to keep paying this debt until it swallows me whole.” 

The average amount of debt for a student graduating from the UI is around $31,756, including both federal and private loans. 

Nationally, as of 2024, the average American college graduate accumulated $38,375 in student loan debt, according to Federal Student Aid. This is a roughly $1,000 jump from the average in 2023. 

Ogbanna also spoke about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, which have recently been under fire by both the federal government and the Iowa legislature. 

She said it is especially important to lower the cost of college for underserved communities, such as first generation students, low income, rural, students of differing races and ethnicities, queer students, disabled students, and “every sector in between.” 

 “Because — shocker — we are all students of what is now demonized as DEI because when it comes to our success, we all deserved and earned it,” she said. 

Zach Grissom, a UI first-year medical student and part of the Iowa Students for a National Health Program, advocated for accessible and affordable health care. 

Grissom grew up in Iowa, and spent nine years in the Navy as a corpsman, where he received and helped deliver military health care in California, Maryland and Illinois.

“I had the privilege to both work in and receive care and systems where the focus was on getting people better, not for them to jump through hoops,” he said. 

Grissom said he was upset about Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ pursuit to enforce work requirements for Medicaid. Reynolds proposed Iowa should apply for a federal waiver to implement work requirements for all able-bodied adults on Medicaid in her Condition of the State speech in January. 

Before going into medical school, Grissom worked in a small Iowa hospital as a registration clerk, where he saw private insurers reject care, passing on the cost to patients. 

Grissom said the community he worked in had one in six adults use Medicaid, which is the same as Iowa’s overall percentage of Medicaid users. 

“Medicaid is how they were able to see their doctor, get their meds,” he said. 

More Iowans teed up Sanders’ speech

Former Iowa education park ranger Brian Gibbs, who was fired from Effigy Mounds in Trump’s sweep of National Park service employees on Feb. 14, spoke of the troubles he’s facing and the danger of the president’s actions. 

As part of Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce, at least 2,300 federal workers in the Department of Interior were terminated, their positions removed entirely. 

This included roughly 1,000 National Park Service employees and 800 Bureau of Land Management unexpectedly fired on Valentine’s Day. 

“Things are not okay. I am not okay,” 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.”  

Gibbs highlighted the importance of National Park service employees, who protect not only nature, but culture as well. 

“Please, friends, stay present,” Gibbs said in a call to the audience. “Don’t avert your gaze.” 

Sandy Burkey, produce supervisor at Coralville’s Costco, spoke about the store’s recent unionization, and the importance of rights for workers. 

Burkey is the lead organizer in the store’s campaign to unionize. Workers at Costco in Coralville announced they are organizing a union with Teamsters Local 238 on Friday. 

The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Costco for violating employees’ federal rights to distribute information about union in non-work areas earlier this month, according to a news release Friday. 

Coralville’s produce supervisor said other stores in the Midwest have reached out to her directly, and they are now organizing and unionizing too. 

“We’re organizing to hold Costco accountable, and we’re organizing to fight corporate greed,” she said. “We cannot make them $7 billion in profits year after year after year and have them not give back.”

“Fighting Oligarchy” tour continues 

Iowa City was Sanders’ second stop on his nationwide “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” tour. The campaign, targeting Trump Musk, launched Friday night in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Sanders’ first stop drew in an overflow crowd of more than 2,500, and hundreds were turned away. 

Saturday’s event packed the 725 capacity Englert Theater, with the line to get in stretching and winding hundreds deep through downtown Iowa City. 

An event for those who could not enter the main venue due to full capacity was held at Bread Garden. 

The campaign is focusing on working class districts won by former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election that also elected a Republican to the U.S. House in 2024. 

Incumbent Miller-Meeks won Iowa’s 1st Congressional District in November. In a narrow win, Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat challenger and UI law professor Christina Bohanna for the second time. 

Sanders recently told Politico that his current term in the U.S. Senate will likely be his last. However, he continues on his tour against Trump and Musk. 

Sanders’ next stop has yet to be announced