UNLIKELY ALLIANCE ALERT: Sanders Says Trump Might Back Living Wage, Universal Healthcare

 

Senator Bernie Sanders, a longtime Trump critic, is raising eyebrows by suggesting the president could be open to a deal on wages and healthcare. According to his remarks, when Trump sees millions of Americans working for what Sanders calls starvation wages, he might not be unsympathetic to raising the minimum wage to a living wage. Sanders also said Trump would probably love to take credit for guaranteeing healthcare to all people, something every other major country already does. Sanders has pushed for a federal minimum wage of $17 an hour, a big jump from the $7.25 that has long been the national floor.

Sanders did not oversell the idea. Asked whether he thinks the two sides can work together, he said maybe, made no guarantees, and called it worth the effort. The comments fit a pattern, since Sanders has said before that he is ready to work with Trump on issues that help working families while opposing him on other policies. In late 2024, he told NBC he wanted to pursue a bipartisan minimum wage increase after Trump said he was open to the idea. Whether Trump would actually back a living wage or universal healthcare is still unanswered, and readers are left asking what such a deal would look like and whether Republicans in Congress would go along.