Ro Khanna's Slow-Motion Betrayal of Silicon Valley — From Wealth Tax Crusade to Defending 9/11 Apologists

Khanna defended Hasan Piker — who said “America deserved 9/11” and celebrated a CEO’s assassination — invoking “the great philosopher Ted Lasso.” Rep. Ritchie Torres wrote to Twitch that Piker told followers to “kill” and “murder” people. The hypocrisy is staggering: Khanna courts an anti-capitalist base while his family’s stock trades outperform the S&P 500 by 112%. This is who CA-17’s congressman is auditioning for now.

Sanders was asked point-blank why America produces more successful tech firms than Europe. He couldn’t answer. He pivoted to healthcare and homelessness because the honest answer — that 12 OECD countries tried wealth taxes and 8 abandoned them, with France losing 42,000 millionaires and €200B in assets — destroys his entire platform. Europe has the social programs Sanders praises and zero of the world’s ten largest tech companies.

Only 5% of Khanna’s $9M+ in contributions came from within CA-17 — the district spanning Fremont, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, and parts of San Jose. He admitted his federal unrealized gains tax faces constitutional challenges and supports it anyway. The “Billionaire Tax” framing is a lie: it targets paper wealth held by early employees and founders who built companies from code and sweat, not cash.

Tech leaders who once backed Khanna are now organizing to primary him after his push for a federal unrealized gains tax. Campaign finance data shows 96% of his funding comes from outside CA-17 — a district that is 56% Asian American immigrants and home to the heart of Silicon Valley. Vinod Khosla called him a “commie comrade”; Max Levchin warned taxing unrealized gains will “decimate California’s future tax base.”