‘Spoiled Brats’ Make Up the Leadership of the Progressive Left, Official Says

Recent reports note that top members of the Democratic Socialists of America and a renowned Democrat political strategist have shown that the individuals are further from the struggling middle class than they claim.

Morris Katz

While Morris Katz is not a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, the 26-year-old Democrat political strategist played a key role in top campaigns of self-proclaimed socialists, such as the failed race of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner and the campaign of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

His political consultant firm, Fight Agency, describes him as someone who “hates status quo politics,” “loves long-shots, and “has never backed away from a fight.”

In January, the New York Times ran an op-ed that described Katz as someone who is “ready to fix” leftist campaigns.

After Platner’s race imploded over rape allegations and controversy over a Nazi-associated tattoo on the candidate’s chest, Mamdani stated that he would stick to Katz’ consulting advice despite fellow DSA members calling for “DSA candidates and elected officials to no longer contract or work with Morris Katz or Fight Agency.”

On Wednesday, New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino exposed what she described as a “very interesting email” stating that Katz suddenly stopped paying rent for his $5,700-a-month apartment in New York.

The email, which appears to come from the property management, accuses Katz of bouncing several checks and avoiding contact with the management team.

Katz, according to the email, would also redirect the managment team to a “useless girl he called his assistant,” who would claim that Katz was out of town, yet the team would “catch him out drinking and bar hopping locally.”

“This was just a couple of months ago,” the email added.

In an X post, the councilwoman, who first published screenshots of that email, claimed that “ultimately his rich parents, of course, bailed him out with the landlord, presumably to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.”

She then described the DSA as a group of unqualified “spoiled brats.”

“This is DSA. A group of spoiled brats who cannot even manage their own lives, yet supposedly have all the answers for how our entire world should be run. An absolute joke,” Paladino said.

Fight Agency and Paladino did not return the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Tracy Rosenthal

Tracy Rosenthal, the Mamdani ally and DSA speaker who has been “squatting” in her luxury New York City apartment, is the daughter of a four-time Grammy-award-winning music producer.

The squatter, who grew up in a $1.7 million house and even attended the Grammys twice with her dad, Steven Rosenthal, has led a four-year “rent strike” since she moved to the city from California.

During an August DSA meeting in North Carolina, the 39-year-old, who posed for a photo at Karl Marx’s grave during a trip to London in 2021, described her over $2,000-a-month apartment as “poor living conditions,” since she discovered cockroaches in the property.

“As soon as I moved in, I realized that we had roaches … and I lost my mind,” she said. “I was very angry. It’s really gross.”

Rosenthal blamed the roaches on the landlord, because she claimed that he did not want to pay for an exterminator.

She then organized with the building’s other tenants to stop paying rent after they learned that the building was allegedly renting more units than previously legally approved.

As a result, she deprived the property owner of at least $108,000 in rent from her unit alone, according to the New York Post.

Recently, the housing unit went into foreclosure. Rosenthal is now being sued, along with four other tenants, for eviction, the outlet reported.

The New York City and Brooklyn DSA chapters did not reply to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Gustavo Gordillo

This week, it was revealed that Gustavo Gordillo, the 38-year-old co-chair of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, lives in a $1.5 million Brooklyn home purchased by his parents’ company, records show.

Gordillo’s parents, who immigrated to the United States from Peru, told The New York Post that they have financially supported the Yale University graduate and DSA chair over the years.

However, the DSA co-chair frequently makes statements on television such as, “We don’t think that anybody should have the constitutional right to double-digit returns on their investment.”

Gordillo, who describes himself as a union electrician and lists that occupation on his X profile, was terminated from his apprenticeship with IBEW Local 3 in March for a “prolonged absence.”

“After learning of Mr. Gordillo’s prolonged absence from and failure to participate in required work and classes, the trustees of the Joint Apprentice Training Committee terminated Mr. Gordillo from the program,” the union said in a statement.

A source familiar with the union told the Post that Gordillo doesn’t have a “strong work record to begin with” and applied for the job “just for show,” potentially taking the spot away from someone “who probably really needed the opportunity.”

The union also pointed out that Gordillo is behind on dues by three months.

However, Gordillo allegedly did not disclose the termination to his fellow DSA members.

An attendee of a DSA meeting in Queens, New York, told the outlet in July that Gordillo “went into detail” about his day job.

The source added that Gordillo even told his fellow comrades about the struggles of doing media interviews on construction job sites, adding that it was too “distracting.”

Gordillo used that union story as cover to secure full-time pay from the DSA—a position paying $95,000 a year with benefits.

“This appeal to a struggle that he is facing doesn’t seem real at all. It’s a lie,” the source added. “It just seems like a ploy.”

The New York City and Brooklyn DSA chapters did not reply to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.