{"id":2618370,"date":"2026-06-24T08:31:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-disingenuous-schemer-ro-khanna-is-a-model-democrat\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T08:37:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T12:37:58","slug":"the-disingenuous-schemer-ro-khanna-is-a-model-democrat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-disingenuous-schemer-ro-khanna-is-a-model-democrat\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disingenuous Schemer Ro Khanna Is A Model Democrat"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-disingenuous-schemer-ro-khanna-is-a-model-democrat%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2618370&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Ro Khanna exemplifies the contradictions often seen among certain Democratic politicians. Despite representing a wealthy Silicon Valley district funded by tech billionaires and possessing meaningful personal fortune, he publicly denounces wealth and tech elites. His background includes elite education at the University of Chicago and Yale law, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >career involving high-profile government<\/a> and legal roles, reflecting a credentials-driven, status-conscious upbringing. Khanna\u2019s marriage further cemented his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/justice-democrats-endorse-progressive-challenger-in-michigan-primary\/\" title=\"Justice ... endorse progressive challenger in Michigan primary\">affluent status<\/a>, with a union that linked two prestigious families, adding to his net worth and assets, which he discloses extensively due to complex holdings. His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrat-congressman-allegedly-failed-to-disclose-stock-trades-during-pandemic-extremely-concerning\/\" title=\"Democrat ... Allegedly Failed To Disclose Stock Trades During Pandemic: \u2018Extremely Concerning...\">stock trading activity<\/a> has accumulated over $630 million in personal trades, highlighting substantial financial engagement with markets.<\/p>\n<p>Politically, Khanna positions himself as a critic of the wealthy, aligning with Bernie Sanders\u2019 anti-oligarchy stance, yet he embodies many traits of the elite he condemns-living in luxury, traveling on private jets, and participating in the elite social rituals of disavowing privilege. This performative dissonance suggests a routine strategy of positioning against privilege while maintaining personal benefits from it. Critics argue that Khanna&#8217;s rhetoric is performative, a scripted act rooted in the political powerplay Democrats often employ-appearing to oppose privilege while benefiting from it. Observers warn that if encountered in person, Khanna\u2019s authenticity might be suspect, marking him as emblematic of politicians who combine genuine ambition with transactional, performative politics.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Ro Khanna is <em>exactly<\/em> what Democrats have become, and I mean that as the kind of insult that leads to bar fights.<\/p>\n<p>The Silicon Valley congressman is an optical illusion come to life, a man who appears to be standing on both sides of any cultural or political valley you can identify. Lavishly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2013\/11\/silicon-valley-ro-khanna-099297\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">funded<\/a> by tech CEOs and venture capitalists, representing a district full of extraordinary wealth, and personally <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WashTimes\/status\/2068083931841212659\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an <em>extremely<\/em> wealthy man<\/a>, Tim Cook\u2019s congressman now spends his days denouncing personal wealth and tech billionaires. He\u2019s a member of all the clubs he says he hates. But there\u2019s some evidence that suggests the meaning of his increasingly strange performance.<\/p>\n<p>Before you consider his politics, consider his background. The son of Punjabi immigrants, Khanna grew up in the <a href=\"https:\/\/bucksco.today\/2026\/05\/wealthiest-neighborhoods-bucks-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">affluent<\/a> Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was all the high-status things: high school valedictorian, econ major at the University of Chicago, Yale Law grad, clerk for a circuit court judge, political appointee in the Obama administration, box-checking <a href=\"https:\/\/scholarship.law.georgetown.edu\/facpub\/2360\/\">big law<\/a> attorney with a side gig at Stanford. He was <em>exactly<\/em> what the writer Chris Arnade <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@Chris_arnade\/divided-by-meaning-1ab510759ee7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">calls<\/a> a \u201cfront row kid,\u201d a credentials-focused urban striver. When you meet people like this at parties, they ask you where you went to school before they decide if they want to talk to you.<\/p>\n<p>When Khanna married, he made one of those alliance-with-the-neighboring-dynasty transactions that aristocrats make. His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/08\/30\/fashion\/weddings\/ritu-ahuja-and-rohit-khanna.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wedding announcement<\/a> in The New York Times is a classic of the form, Chicago and Yale marrying Georgetown and Columbia: \u201cUntil April, Mrs. Khanna, 36, was a product marketing specialist in New York for Bulgari, the Italian jewelry and accessories company. She graduated from Georgetown and received a master\u2019s in strategic communications from Columbia \u2026 The bride\u2019s father is the chairman of Mura Holdings, an investment firm.\u201d We\u2019re getting married, STATUS STATUS STATUS. We have formed a love-bridge between two exceptional sets of credentials, and will now proceed to manufacture high-status progeny.<\/p>\n<p>Marrying a marketing specialist for a luxury jewelry company who was the daughter of the chairman of a an investment firm, Khanna shored up his net worth. Famously, the financial disclosure forms he files as a member of Congress <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2020\/10\/01\/several-lawmakers-disclose-opaque-financial-records\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">run to the hundreds of pages<\/a>, because he has to disclose so many assets in so many categories that are held in such complicated ways.<\/p>\n<p>With all that wealth distributed across a long list of investments, Khanna\u2019s stock trading activity is eye-watering. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nolte-without-proof-feds-accuse-zero-hedge-of-russian-collaboration\/\" title=\"Nolte: Without Proof, Feds Accuse Zero Hedge of Russian Collaboration\">financial website<\/a> that tracks congressional trading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quiverquant.com\/congresstrading\/politician\/Ro%20Khanna-K000389\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reports<\/a> that the Silicon Valley congressman has racked up <em>over $630 million<\/em> in personal trade volume during his career in elected office.<\/p>\n<p>Now, politics: Khanna <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sanders.senate.gov\/press-releases\/news-sanders-and-khanna-introduce-legislation-to-tax-billionaire-wealth-and-invest-in-working-families\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">is a Bernie Bro<\/a>, and he\u2019s very angry at rich people.<\/p>\n<p>Take a moment. Just sit with it and let it percolate.<\/p>\n<p>Recall that Bernie Sanders, on the thing he actually, literally called his \u201cNo Oligarchy\u201d tour, flew to all his tour dates on private jets, and when confronted about it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/RT3GI1vEAdc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> <em>what the hell do you want me to do, stand in line at the airport<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>This one is also a classic of the form:<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>The best part of this video is that after Elizabeth Warren realizes she&#8217;s been caught on camera exiting a private jet. <\/p>\n<p>She attempts to hide behind her staffer. As if that would work. \ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23\ud83e\udd23 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WVtCOaVphK\">pic.twitter.com\/WVtCOaVphK<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 Francis Brennan (@FrancisBrennan) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FrancisBrennan\/status\/1224814198263353344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The classic <a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/hardcover\/9780691176949\/the-house-of-government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">group biography<\/a> of the Old Bolsheviks is titled <em>The House of Government<\/em>, because that\u2019s the luxurious apartment building on the bank of a river in Moscow where the Soviet elite lived with their maids and cooks and nannies. They weren\u2019t always there, because they also spent a lot of time at their vacation homes. (Until Stalin purged his political rivals by murdering them, and the building kept getting new tenants.)<\/p>\n<p>The gentry socialist ritual of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-easy-being-a-socialist-in-a-country-you-dont-have-to-escape-from\/\" title=\"It...s Easy Being A Socialist In A Country You Don...t Have To Escape From\">denouncing wealth<\/a> and status from your seat on a Gulfstream 550 on the way to Davos is a crenellated castle wall that sits behind a moat. It\u2019s a <em>defense mechanism<\/em>, an \u201canti-privilege\u201d ritual performed in pursuit of privilege.<\/p>\n<p>So the constant appearance of absolute disingenuousness from Khanna isn\u2019t an accident or a glitch: It\u2019s the thing itself, the routine operation of the front row kid who\u2019s reading from the power-seeking script that says he opposes power. He\u2019s a <em>performer<\/em>, basically at the cellular level, reciting the demagoguery that Democrats believe to be the tool to victory. <\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>Ro Khanna: Elon needs to be subpoenaed, investigated and held accountable.<\/p>\n<p>Ro Khanna, after Elon threatens to sue: I don\u2019t believe in lawfare. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4j5glvwNpX\">pic.twitter.com\/4j5glvwNpX<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WesternLensman\/status\/2069386722933178562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>If you have the stomach for it, an <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/34HVF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">early profile<\/a> of Khanna from the thumb-sucking leftist website Vox accidentally makes all the fakery pretty obvious. It features a bunch of sentences like this one, describing a tool of rich tech bros who publicly declares his fondness for anti-capitalist allies in Congress: \u201cKhanna is walking a delicate path between two sides that are not, in the long term, natural allies.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s one way to put it, yes.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll let you read the rest for yourself, because it\u2019ll be like finding diamonds on the ground, but here\u2019s just one more of those descriptions, made in apparent earnestness, about the way Khanna is both one thing and completely the other thing at the very same time: \u201cThe origin story is almost too perfect. There are politicians who run to be the establishment and politicians who run to topple the establishment. Khanna, unusually, is both.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Uh-huh.<\/p>\n<p>If you find yourself sitting near Ro Khanna in an airport, watch your wallet.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>It\u2019s funny.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve hired a lot of people in my life.<\/p>\n<p>And after listening to this guy for 10 seconds, I can tell 99% he\u2019s a bullshitter.<\/p>\n<p>My bullshit detector is ringing so hard \ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8\ud83d\udea8 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/njB6Re8upp\">https:\/\/t.co\/njB6Re8upp<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 Brivael Le Pogam (@brivael) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/brivael\/status\/2069219486658642396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<hr>\n<p>      Chris Bray is a senior correspondent at The Federalist and a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at &#8220;Tell Me How This Ends,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/chrisbray.substack.com\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ro Khanna embodies the contradictions of modern Democrats<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":2618371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ro.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[4912,5894,32530],"class_list":["post-2618370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-democrat","tag-politics","tag-ro-khanna"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ro.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2618370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2618374,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618370\/revisions\/2618374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2618371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2618370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2618370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2618370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}