Democrats are coming to the defense of Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani of New York following the president’s threat to possibly arrest, denaturalize, and deport the mayoral candidate. Mr. Mamdani is waiting for several Democrats to endorse him after he was officially declared the winner of the Democratic primary on Tuesday. 

Democrats in the state and across the country have been wary of defending him, given his left-wing policy agenda and his defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada.” That all came to a halt on Tuesday after President Trump mused about deporting the “communist.”

“We’ll have to arrest him,” Mr. Trump said during a press event in Florida on Tuesday after being asked about Mr. Mamdani’s stance that New York will remain a sanctuary city. 

“We don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m gonna be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation,” the president said. 

Mr. Trump also hinted that stripping the city of some federal funds could be an option should Mr. Mamdani not comply with deportation operations. “We send him money, we send him all of the things that he needs to run a government, and by the way, they get already they get about three times what you get, Ron,” Mr. Trump said, turning to Governor DeSantis. 

Mr. Trump then went on to claim that there’s a chance Mr. Mamdani, who has been a citizen since 2018, is “here illegally.” Some conservative groups, including the New York Young Republican Club, and even a member of Congress have called for Mr. Mamdani to be denaturalized and deported. 

“We’re gonna be watching that very carefully and a lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday. “You know, we’re gonna look at everything, and ideally, he’s gonna turn out to be much less than a communist.”

Mr. Mamdani, in response, called the president’s remarks 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.”

Democrats were quick to back him up — even those who have so far not yet endorsed Mr. Mamdani. 

“I don’t care if you’re the President of the United States, if you threaten to unlawfully go after one of our neighbors, you’re picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers — starting with me,” Governor Hochul wrote on X in response to Mr. Trump’s comments. Ms. Hochul has said that she needs to sit down and talk with Mr. Mamdani before she makes a decision about endorsing him. 

When a Republican lawmaker, Congressman Andy Ogles, called on the Department of Justice to investigate and deport Mr. Mamdani, Senator Schumer spoke out against it, though he has not commented on the president’s threats. “That’s disgusting,” Mr. Schumer said of Mr. Ogles’s call for deportation. 

One Democrat from New York City, Congressman Ritchie Torres, has also come out in defense of his party’s mayoral nominee. Mr. Torres has been fiercely critical in the past of Mr. Mamdani’s anti-Israel activism, though he also says there is no place for racist or Islamaphobic attacks to be levied against him. 

A Republican House member, Congressman Brandon Gill, had posted a message telling Mr. Mamdani to “go back to the Third World” after a video of the assemblyman eating rice with his hands started circulating online. 

“In a healthy democracy, it should be possible to challenge someone’s ideas without attacking their faith, calling for their denaturalization or deportation, or telling them to ‘go back to the Third World,’” Mr. Torres, who like Ms. Hochul and Mr. Schumer has refused to endorse Mr. Mamdani for mayor, wrote in a post on X.