Bernie Sanders stood before 36,000 people in Los Angeles last April and told them billionaires were destroying America.
Ten days later, the organization he founded to fight "oligarchy" endorsed a billionaire for governor of California.
Here's what they hope you don't notice about the man they just handed their blessing to.
The Billionaire Bernie's Group Just Called a Hero
Tom Steyer made his $2.4 billion fortune running Farallon Capital, a $20 billion hedge fund.
While Sanders was out there telling crowds to "eat the rich," Farallon was investing $90 million in CoreCivic – the private prison company that runs ICE detention facilities.
The same ICE facilities Steyer now promises to destroy if California elects him governor.
Farallon also poured money into coal companies.
Not coal-adjacent companies. Coal companies. The ones that produce the fossil fuel Steyer now campaigns against.
He called those investments a "mistake" once reporters started asking questions.
Steyer also earned $67 million from private equity funds in a single year – 2021 – while California families were getting crushed by inflation.
His investment firm Galvanize Climate Solutions had money sitting in the Cayman Islands.
That's the offshore tax shelter scheme Democrats spend every waking hour screaming about.
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/2046648840913134017?s=20
And Steyer funneled cash through multiple "dark money" networks – the anonymous donor operations he publicly said "should have no place in our politics."
He said that, but then he did the exact thing he said should have no place in our politics.
Now he's spent $120 million of his personal fortune on his own campaign – roughly 30 times more than any of his Democratic rivals.
Our Revolution looked at all of this and said: he's our guy.
The Sentence That Explains Everything
Our Revolution's excuse for endorsing Steyer is one of the most revealing things the American left has ever put in writing.
"Yes, Tom Steyer is a billionaire. But it matters what he is doing with that power."
Read that again slowly.
It matters what he is doing with that power.
Sanders spent the last year drawing crowds of 20,000 in Salt Lake City, 34,000 in Denver, 36,000 in Los Angeles – all to deliver one message.
Billionaires have too much power. Full stop. No exceptions.
Now his own organization is telling you the exceptions exist.
The billionaire is fine – as long as he's doing the right things with his billions.
What are "the right things"? Backing the policies Our Revolution supports.
https://twitter.com/KalshiPolitics/status/2046307991910260970?s=20
That's it. It was never about wealth.
It was always about loyalty.
The Pattern Sanders Counted On You Missing
This isn't the first time the progressive movement made this calculation.
Barack Obama campaigned in 2008 promising to take no money from lobbyists and super PACs.
By 2012, with his reelection on the line, his campaign reversed course and embraced outside billionaire money anyway – and justified it as a practical necessity in a broken system.
The machine that Sanders built – the one that just wrapped a 50-city tour screaming about oligarchs – endorsed a man who personally profited from private prisons, coal, Cayman Islands tax shelters, and dark money.
The executive director of Our Revolution even admitted the quiet part out loud.
"The worst thing that could happen is a Republican winning," Joseph Geevarghese said.
So there it is.
https://twitter.com/sgtnewsnetwork/status/2046634149071753330?s=20
The principles aren't the point.
Winning is the point.
And if winning requires a $2.4 billion hedge fund operator who invested in ICE detention facilities, Bernie's people will hand him the endorsement, call it progressive, and dare you to notice the contradiction.
Sanders himself sits on a $2.5 million personal fortune built on book deals and real estate – while telling working Americans the system is rigged against them.
He's right that it's rigged.
The people running this particular racket are just better at hiding it than the ones he points at on stage.
Sources:
- Titus Wu, "Bernie Sanders group backs billionaire CA gov wannabe in shocking flip-flop," New York Post, April 21, 2026.
- Elaine Mallon, "Bernie Sanders' anti-billionaire group defends surprising endorsement of billionaire for CA governor," Fox News, April 21, 2026.
- Staff, "Progressive Group Founded by Bernie Sanders Endorses Billionaire for California Governor," The Intercept, April 20, 2026.
- Staff, "Who is Tom Steyer? Anti-ICE billionaire in CA governor's race faces scrutiny over detention investments," Fox News, April 16, 2026.
- Staff, "Bernie Sanders and AOC Draw Massive Crowds In Red States," Rolling Stone, April 14, 2025.