Bernie Sanders Spent $500K on Private Jets, Report Found  | Headline USA

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has been flying high on private jets while railing against billionaires on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, plowing more than half a million dollars in campaign funds into luxury air travel. 

Private jets are a luxury most Americans never experience. For Sanders, however, they have become routine, costing his campaign donors roughly $550,000 in 2025 alone, according to Federal Election Commission filings. 

As reported first by Fox News, most of the private air travel occurred through July 2025, coinciding with the period when Sanders and fellow democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez traveled the country attacking billionaires. 

Fox News reported that Sanders was spotted in April boarding a luxury Bombardier Challenger jet that reportedly costs $15,000 an hour to operate within California.  

The aircraft operator, Ventura Air Services, openly markets its high-end amenities on its website. 

“Offering one of the widest cabins of any business jet available today, stand-up room of over six feet and a passive noise insulation system, it provides superior cabin comfort for its passengers,” the airline wrote. 

It is little surprise, then, that Sanders’s campaign paid $354,000 to the company alone. 

Additional payments went to private aviation firms, including N-Jet and Cirrus Aviation Services. 

While such luxury may appeal to anyone, Sanders is no stranger to private air travel. 

During his 2020 presidential campaign, Sanders reportedly spent more than $1.9 million on private jets.

In the 2018 midterms, his campaign spent nearly $298,000, preceded by $157,000 in 2017, partially backed by the Democratic National Committee. 

In 2016, while campaigning for Hillary Clinton, Sanders demanded roughly $100,000 in private air travel expenses charged to the campaign. 

Sanders has defended his reliance on private jets, telling Fox News that it was the only way to travel efficiently while campaigning. 

“When you run a campaign and do you three or four or five rallies in a week, the only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people … it’s the only way to get around,” he claimed in May. “No apologies for that. That’s what campaign travel is about. We have done it in the past and we will do it in the future.”