Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City’s mayor, has come under attack by President Donald Trump as of late after Andrew Cuomo conceded to him in the race, with Trump stating that “It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary and is on his way to becoming Mayor.”
This built until Tuesday, according to Axios, when Trump threatened to arrest Mamdani if he didn’t allow immigration officials to arrest immigrants within the city after Mamdani promised to keep ICE from deporting migrants. Trump stated that if Mamdani refused to listen “we’ll have to arrest him.” Trump went further and threatened to revoke Mamdani’s citizenship, along with the citizenship of Elon Musk whom he’s also been on shaky terms with as of recent, especially with his rejection of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
It does come into question if Trump has grounds to arrest Mamdani. State and local law enforcement generally isn’t required to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, while voluntary collaboration is possible. This doesn’t necessarily present Trump with large grounds to act against Mamdani himself.
The Republican party is pushing to have Mamdani’s citizenship revoked, with United States Representative Andy Ogles, stating on X that “Mamdani is an antisemitic, socialist, communist who will destroy the great City of New York. He needs to be deported. Which is why I am calling for him to be subject to denaturalization proceedings.” Whether they successfully arrest and deport Mamdani or not remains to be seen.
