NEW YORK – President Donald Trump has a new political foil: New York’s Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

The president, known for hurling harsh insults toward his opponents, has recently intensified his verbal assaults on the 33-year-old democratic socialist. Trump has made threats to detain Mamdani, expel him from the country, and even seize control of the nation’s largest city if he emerges victorious in the upcoming November general election.

“As the President of the United States, I refuse to let this so-called Communist Lunatic wreak havoc on New York. Rest assured, I hold all the power and have all the strategies,” Trump declared in a foreboding statement on his Truth Social platform Wednesday morning. “I’ll rescue New York City, revitalizing it to be ′Hot′ and ′Great′ once more, just as I did with the beloved USA!”

Mamdani’s unexpected triumph over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has provided Republicans with a fresh target as they attempt to depict the entire Democratic Party as radical and disconnected from voters, especially as they gear up for the upcoming elections in New Jersey and Virginia this fall and the crucial midterm elections next year. Following Mamdani’s win, they have consistently underscored his most divisive remarks and stances, portraying him as menacing, a communist, and antisemitic, while seeking to associate him with other Democratic leaders.

That has included intense criticism of his platform, as well as blatantly xenophobic and Islamophobic attacks.

If Mamdani wins, he would become the city’s furthest-left mayor in modern history. He ran on a platform that included opening city-run grocery stores, making buses free, freezing rent on rent-stabilized apartments, and raising property taxes on “ richer and whiter neighborhoods.”

Though he softened his stance as he campaigned, he called the New York Police Department “racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety” in a 2020 social media post, and in others, called for abolishing the entire prison system.

He has also drawn intense criticism from members of both parties over his pro-Palestinian advocacy. That has included describing Israel’s war in Gaza as “genocide,” his refusal to disavow use of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which is seen as a call to violence for many Jews. Also, for his refusal to support the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.

His rise has sparked infighting and highlighted divisions among national Democratic officials, donors and political operatives. While many progressives have celebrated, seeing him as the future of a party aligned with leaders like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, moderates have bemoaned the election’s outcome as a setback in their quest to broaden Democrats’ appeal and move past the more controversial policies that appears to have alienated some voters in recent elections.

Trump threatens Mamdani’s citizenship

Trump unleashed some of his sharpest threats against Mamdani Tuesday, during a visit to a new migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades.

If Mamdani blocks ICE agents from making arrests in the city, “Well, then we’ll have to arrest him,” he 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.”

Trump also amplified a false allegation that Mamdani, who was born in Uganda to Indian parents and came to New York when he was 7, is in the country illegally.

“A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally. We’re going to look at everything,” he said.

Mamdani, who is Muslim, became a naturalized American citizen a few years after he graduated from college. If elected, he would be the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor.

Mamdani addressed the criticism during an appearance Wednesday, telling reporters that Trump is focusing on him to distract the public from the Republican mega tax and spending cuts bill that is moving through Congress.

“Donald Trump said that I should be arrested. He said that I should be deported. He said that I should be denaturalized. And he said those things about me … because he wants to distract from what I fight for,” he said. “I fight for the same people that he said he was fighting for. This is the same president who ran on a campaign of cheaper groceries, who ran on a campaign about easing the suffocating cost of living crisis. And ultimately, it is easier for him to fan the flames of division than to acknowledge the ways in which he has betrayed those working-class Americans.”

Conservatives have turned their focus on Mamdani

Until Mamdani’s win, Trump and other Republicans had struggled to find a compelling foil. He frequently invokes his predecessor, Joe Biden. But with Democrats out of power and without a clear party leader, Trump has bounced from one official to the next, recently focusing his ire on Texas progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Since Mamdani’s national rise and toppling of Cuomo, conservative politicians and commentators have turned their focus on him.

That effort was on display Wednesday, when Republicans blasted House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries for defending Mamdani.

“Leader’ Jeffries Just Bent the Knee to Commie Mamdani,” the National Republican Congressional Committee wrote in an email blast, adding: “This radical platform is the future of the Democrat Party, and voters should be terrified.”

The attacks have been brewing.

Weeks before the primary, Vickie Paladino, a Republican member of the New York City Council, called for Mamdani to be deported. After Mamdani declared victory over Cuomo last week, Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, wrote on X that “If Mamdani has his way, NYC classrooms won’t be teaching the Constitution in civics class. They’ll be teaching Sharia Law.”

Another Republican congressman, Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas, circulated a video of Mamdani eating a rice dish with his hands on X and wrote, “Civilized people in America don’t eat like this. If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the Third World.”

Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, of Tennessee, has referred to Mamdani as “little muhammad” and late last month wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for the Justice Department to investigate whether Mamdani should be denaturalized as a citizen.

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