July 2, 2025

Mamdani Responds to Trump’s Arrest Threat

Time - Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate in the upcoming New York City mayoral race, denounced President Donald Trump’s threat to arrest him over his pledge to push back on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, calling the President's comments “an attack on our democracy” and “intimidation.”

Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist state assemblymember whose victory over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in last week’s Democratic primary marked a stunning political upset, has said that he would be “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.” He has condemned the Trump Administration’s efforts to conduct mass deportations, promising in a speech the night of the primary election to use his authority to “stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors.”

Trump has criticized Mamdani since the 33-year-old state lawmaker declared victory in the Democratic primary, calling him “a 100% Communist lunatic” in the wake of the election. The President escalated his attacks on Mamdani during a press briefing on Tuesday. He alluded to false claims that Mamdani is in the country “illegally.” Mamdani is not in the U.S. illegally; he was born in Uganda and moved to the U.S. at the age of 7, becoming a naturalized American citizen in 2018. Trump was also asked during the press briefing how he responded to Mamdani’s vow to defy ICE agents, to which the President replied, “Well then, we’ll have to arrest him.”

Mamdani took to social media hours later to slam the President’s comments, saying that Trump had threatened to arrest him “not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorize our city.”

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