President Trump on Tuesday threatened New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani with arrest, should he be elected and follow through with a campaign promise to "stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors."
Speaking on Tuesday during a visit to a new migrant detention facility just opened in Florida, President Trump said the Justice Department would react swiftly to any such obstruction to ICE's operations.
"Well then, we'll have to arrest him," President Trump said.
"Look, we don't need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I'm going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation," he said.
The comments are President Trump's latest attack on Mamdani, who he called a "total nut job" earlier on Tuesday.
"A lot of people are saying he's here illegally," Trump said, without evidence, on Tuesday.
On Sunday, President Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from New York if, should Mamdani be elected mayor, he didn't "behave himself."
"If he does get in, I’m going to be president, and he’s going to have to do the right thing, or they’re not getting any money. He’s got to do the right thing or they’re not getting any money," President Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
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Mamdani, who formally clinched a win over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the state's Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday, has called President Trump's latest comments "intimidation."
"His statements don't just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you," Mamdani said. "We will not accept this intimidation."
