CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria delivered a striking rebuke of Democrat-run “blue cities” on Sunday, arguing that urban strongholds like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago have become cautionary tales of high taxes, runaway spending, and disappointing results.
Opening his program, Zakaria described New York City as a prime example of what he called a broader problem within Democratic leadership. “New York is really a prime example of a problem Democrats seem unwilling to confront,” he said. “Blue cities are out of control, promising more, spending more, delivering less, and pushing off the fiscal problems to some future day.”
Zakaria took direct aim at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed 9.5% property tax increase, arguing that it is ill-advised in a city where residents already face a heavy tax burden. He suggested that increasing taxes even further could worsen the strain on homeowners without addressing the underlying issues plaguing the city.
While Zakaria briefly acknowledged that Mamdani’s “basic instinct” about housing affordability being a serious challenge for middle-class New Yorkers is correct, he quickly pivoted to criticize the city’s approach. According to data displayed during the segment, New York City’s rental assistance subsidies have skyrocketed since 2020, rising fivefold from $263 million to $1.34 billion in 2025.
“Focus on affordability, especially housing, but not by providing government subsidies,” Zakaria said. “These only seem to have driven up the cost of rent, as subsidies naturally do.” His comments suggested that pouring taxpayer dollars into assistance programs may be contributing to the very problem they are meant to solve.
Zakaria then turned his attention westward, labeling Los Angeles “another one-party metropolis.” He pointed to the city’s massive spending in an effort to address homelessness, noting that despite billions of dollars invested in recent years, the crisis has not improved. Instead, he highlighted an Associated Press report showing that Los Angeles County’s homeless population surged by 70% between 2015 and 2024.
The implication was clear: more spending has not translated into better outcomes.
Chicago also came under fire. Zakaria described it as yet another Democrat-led city struggling with serious fiscal challenges. He noted that the city is run by an unpopular mayor and warned that ballooning pension payments threaten to bankrupt the city “sooner or later.”
Raising broader concerns about governance, Zakaria asked, “What is the theory of good government here?” He suggested that simply layering new programs on top of existing ones is not a sustainable solution. “If the answer is keep adding programs, the city will keep producing unaffordability because unaffordability is what happens when government becomes a machine that grows faster than the society it governs,” he said.
Zakaria’s unusually blunt critique of Democratic urban leadership quickly drew attention beyond CNN’s audience. President Donald Trump’s social media team shared a clip of the monologue on X, amplifying the message and underscoring how even voices within traditionally left-leaning media are now questioning the direction of America’s largest Democrat-run cities.
