The Democratic Socialists of America are no longer just a threat to America’s economic system. They are increasingly a threat to American sovereignty as well.
That was the warning from Stu Smith, an investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, in congressional testimony this week. Smith argued that the DSA has developed relationships with foreign political parties, participated in overseas delegations, coordinated with international political movements, and pursued domestic advocacy that often aligns with the interests of foreign governments.
The concern is no longer limited to the DSA’s calls to replace capitalism, confiscate private property, redistribute wealth on a massive scale, or abolish traditional law enforcement. It is also that a domestic political movement gaining influence inside the Democrat Party appears increasingly comfortable operating as part of an international ideological network, one whose priorities do not necessarily hold themselves to the interests of the United States.
"DSA's national leadership is increasingly acting as an international political actor—developing relationships with foreign political parties, participating in foreign delegations, coordinating with overseas political movements, and engaging in domestic political advocacy that… pic.twitter.com/NmGQ7GLVL6
— Manhattan Institute (@ManhattanInst) September 15, 2026
"Thank you to the chairman and the ranking member and the rest of the committee for the opportunity to address you. I am an investigative analyst who focuses on extremism. I am here to discuss the DSA's international activities and organizing efforts which I believe pose significant concerns for American sovereignty," Smith said during his opening remarks.
"These activities are rooted in proletarian internationalism, a revolutionary anti-imperialist vision of global working-class solidarity aimed at overthrowing capitalism. The causes the DSA champions abroad are antithetical to the American project. Their support for governments including Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea raise serious concerns about its willingness to minimize or disregard the authoritarian practices and human rights abuses associated with those regimes."
"DSA's national leadership is increasingly acting as an international political actor, developing relationships with foreign political parties, participating in foreign delegations, coordinating with overseas political movements, and engaging in domestic political advocacy that intersects with the interests of foreign governments," Smith said. "There's a common saying inside the DSA, put 10 socialists in a room and you will get 11 different answers. The phrase reflects the organization's big tent character, bringing together anarchists, communists, Maoists, Marxist-Leninists, socialists, social democrats, and others across the left."
"It obscures a more important question, who has the power to turn those 11 answers into reality?"
Smith pointed to several particular examples, revealing how the DSA has worked through foreign state-controlled organizations linked to China, Cuba, and Venezuela. The group has also sent 40-person delegations, including its national co-chairs, to Cuba and Venezuela, where members received luxury hotel stays, fawning state-media coverage, and government-hosted treatment before returning home to turn their trips into organizing material.
That alignment has, predictably, led the DSA to downplay human-rights abuses committed by communist and authoritarian governments.
The organization has not exactly hidden its foreign connections either, proudly aligning itself with the so-called "international Left" and devoting much of its energy to blaming Western action for other countries’ failures. In Cuba, for example, the DSA blames the island’s humanitarian crisis on U.S. sanctions rather than the corruption, repression, and economic mismanagement of the communist regime.
The danger is no longer merely that the DSA admires failed regimes abroad and hopes to import their ideas here. It is that the organization increasingly treats America as a conduit for a global left-wing movement rather than a sovereign nation with interests of its own. That is the threat to American sovereignty Smith raised: a movement that does not simply want to reshape our country, but one that wants to do so with no regard for our principles that make us so uniquely good.