Footage has surfaced from internal Zoom calls involving Democratic Socialists of America chapter leaders and national organizers, including remarks from one participant describing the goal of subordinating reform efforts to a broader revolutionary program aimed ultimately at communism and the abolition of class. Dan Proft argued that while such rhetoric might be dismissed as campus activism when confined to student groups, it becomes more consequential as DSA-aligned organizers gain influence over officials who hold real political power.
Proft focused particular attention on Gustavo Gordon, identified as head of the political bureau for the New York City DSA chapter, describing him as having played a lead role in Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. Proft recounted Gordon’s account of his family fleeing Peru’s Shining Path insurgency, which Proft characterized as difficult to reconcile with Gordon’s stated opposition to American capitalism, and noted that Gordon’s parents are described as wealthy, that he attended Yale before leaving to pursue a sculpture degree, and that he briefly apprenticed with an electrical workers union while living in a home in Brooklyn purchased by his parents. Proft also referenced Morris Katz, another figure associated with the Mamdani campaign, saying Katz lived in an expensive Brooklyn apartment and stopped paying rent as part of a rent strike before his family intervened to resolve the dispute with the building’s management. Proft additionally cited author Tracy Rosenthal’s writing on rent strikes and remarks from within the same political circle describing private property as a tool of white supremacy.
To discuss the broader movement, Proft was joined by Daniel Di Martino, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute who was born in Venezuela and now lives in the United States. Di Martino said he found it difficult to reconcile Gordon’s account of fleeing American imperialism with the fact that his family relocated to the United States, and argued that the organizers behind prominent democratic socialist politicians hold views that go beyond ordinary policy disagreements over tax rates. He described the movement’s aims as including the seizure of private property, including homes and businesses, paired with support for releasing individuals convicted of violent crimes.
Di Martino was careful to distinguish his criticism of DSA-aligned figures from any broader opposition to legal immigration, noting his own status as an immigrant. He discussed a piece he wrote for the Manhattan Institute examining the EB-5 investor visa program, which allows foreign nationals to obtain green cards by investing at least a million dollars and creating jobs in the United States. Di Martino said the program has become bogged down by bureaucratic delays that can take years before an application is even reviewed, and argued that in practice much of the invested capital flows into real estate projects offering low-interest loans to developers rather than funding new businesses. He said he favors reviving a proposal associated with President Trump for a so-called gold card program, under which high-net-worth foreign individuals could pay a flat fee, which Di Martino estimated at 500,000 to 600,000 dollars per applicant, in exchange for a green card, with proceeds directed toward reducing the national debt.
The conversation turned to Venezuela, where Di Martino said the United States is now receiving roughly half of the country’s oil production following the removal of Nicolás Maduro, while China and Cuba have lost access to discounted or free Venezuezuelan oil. He called Maduro’s arrest a positive development but cautioned that despite new contracts signed by American firms, actual oil production in Venezuela remains minimal, with only two active drilling rigs nationwide. Di Martino attributed the lack of new investment to uncertainty among oil companies over whether a political transition will hold, saying firms are reluctant to commit to long-term drilling projects without confidence that the current government will remain out of power.
Di Martino expressed confidence that Venezuela is moving toward a democratic transition, pointing to opposition leader María Corina Machado, whom he described as commanding overwhelming public support in polling and as a close associate of Argentine President Javier Milei. He predicted Venezuela’s trajectory would resemble Poland’s post-communist transformation more closely than the aftermath of the Iraq war, citing the country’s religious and linguistic homogeneity as a factor likely to support a smoother transition to a market economy.