Trump Says Mamdani Should Be Arrested and Deported. Will Anyone Stop Trump If He Tries?

Bottom Line Up Front (B.L.U.F.)

Who will stop Trump if he orders Mamdani arrested? The Department of Justice and FBI he has restructured to serve him? The Supreme Court that granted him immunity? Congress, which requires Republican cooperation that will never come? His supporters? They will cheer it on. Blue state governors? Will they call the National Guard or order state police to physically prevent it? Soft Secession is crucial here, we need to draw serious lines in the sand and say what will we do to try and prevent it.

Since June, Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to arrest New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a naturalized US citizen and elected state Assembly member. Trump stated "we'll have to arrest him," falsely claiming "a lot of people are saying he's here illegally," and threatened to withhold federal funding from America's largest city unless Mamdani "does the right thing." When asked about Republican demands to deport Mamdani, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the allegations "should be investigated."

Constitutional lawyers responded with unanimous certainty: a president cannot legally deport a US citizen under any circumstances. The Fourteenth Amendment establishes citizenship as an inviolable right. Supreme Court precedent in Afroyim v. Rusk (1967) held that citizenship is "a constitutional right which Congress cannot take away" absent voluntary renunciation or fraud in procurement. Even denaturalization of naturalized citizens requires full judicial proceedings with extraordinarily high evidentiary standards proving fraud in obtaining citizenship, not political positions adopted afterward.

But Trump is already deporting US citizens.

The Government Accountability Office documented approximately 70 US citizens wrongfully deported during Trump's first term. In 2025, the pattern accelerated. Chanthila Souvannarath was deported despite his citizenship. George Retes, a disabled US military veteran, was detained by ICE during a farm raid in California. Kristina Ramirez was held for three days by Customs and Border Protection despite being a US citizen. Her husband, who had a pending visa application, was detained for three months before accepting "voluntary" deportation to Mexico on his lawyer's advice. Javier Ramirez, born in San Bernardino, was tackled and detained after warning coworkers that ICE had arrived. Adrian Martinez was violently arrested outside his Walmart workplace, held incommunicado with officials denying knowledge of his whereabouts, then charged with conspiracy to impede an officer to justify the violent arrest. Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old Chicago citizen, was shot five times by Customs and Border Protection agents.

American children have been detained and deported, missing months of school and losing access to urgent cancer treatments and medications. ProPublica reported in March 2025 that the US government does not track how many citizens ICE detains. In August 2025, fifty members of Congress led by Congressman Dan Goldman and Senator Elizabeth Warren demanded investigations into "alarming reports that U.S. citizens are being wrongfully detained and deported," warning that "this rare practice is becoming more frequent" and that "citizens are becoming increasingly vulnerable in a system moving faster and operating with fewer safeguards."

When federal judges issued orders requiring the government to return wrongfully deported individuals, the Trump administration ignored them. Judge Paula Xinis accused the administration of a "willful and bad-faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations" in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, where the government deported a man to El Salvador's CECOT maximum security prison despite a court order prohibiting his removal. Trump's response was explicit: "We have thousands of people that are ready to go out. And you can't have a trial for all of these people. We're getting them out. And a judge can't say, no, you have to have a trial."

The constitutional protections that legal experts cite are real. They are also irrelevant. Every accountability mechanism that should constrain a president from arresting and deporting political opponents has failed or been systematically captured.

The Department of Justice and FBI have been restructured exactly as Project 2025 blueprinted. The 920-page Heritage Foundation document, authored by 140 former Trump administration officials, called for making DOJ "completely stripped of its independent authority" to serve as a "tool of the president." By June 2025, denaturalization became a top five enforcement priority, with DOJ directing attorneys to "maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law." Thousands of career federal employees accepted buyouts or were dismissed, replaced with political loyalists vetted for "commitment to Trumpism." The FBI was placed under more direct political control, with agents told their "self-perception of independence" must end.

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The Supreme Court granted Trump broad immunity for official acts in its July 2024 decision in Trump v. United States, six months before he took office for his second term. Justice Sotomayor warned in dissent that "the President is now a king above the law." When Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport people without due process to foreign prisons, the Court initially blocked it, then modified its position to allow expedited deportations with limited due process. Courts provide temporary obstacles, then accommodate presidential power.

Congress requires Republican cooperation for any meaningful check on executive power. That cooperation will never come. Trump's supporters do not object to arresting political opponents. They cheer it on.

Blue state officials face real and immediate retaliation for doing their jobs. New York Attorney General Letitia James successfully prosecuted Trump for civil fraud in 2024, enforcing New York law as her office is required to do. Trump publicly demanded her arrest and prosecution. In October 2025, after the previous US Attorney declined to bring charges and was forced out, Trump's hand-picked replacement indicted James on federal bank fraud charges over mortgage paperwork discrepancies that career prosecutors had determined did not warrant criminal prosecution. The charges stem from alleged misstatements about whether a property would be used as a second home rather than a rental, saving James approximately $50 per month in interest. Despite facing two felony counts and potential imprisonment, James appeared at a Mamdani campaign rally and continued filing dozens of lawsuits against Trump administration policies. The message to other state officials was unmistakable: enforce state law against Trump and face federal prosecution in retaliation.

Blue state governors have responded to a degree. Governor Gavin Newsom positioned himself as "de facto head of resistance," directly challenged border officials to "arrest me," and launched viral social media campaigns mocking Trump. Governor J.B. Pritzker called Trump a "wannabe dictator" and told educators that Trump and his cronies "can fuck all the way off." But when Trump authorized federalization of 300 Illinois National Guard troops over Pritzker's objections for immigration enforcement operations, Pritzker objected vocally but did not physically resist. The troops were federalized. No governor has yet ordered state law enforcement to physically prevent federal agents from conducting arrests that violate constitutional protections, even when those arrests clearly exceed federal authority.

So here is the scenario that matters. ICE agents show up at Zohran Mamdani's Assembly office, or his office as Mayor, or even his home with an arrest warrant signed by a Trump-appointed judge based on spurious gang affiliation allegations or denaturalization proceedings initiated under the "turbocharged" program. What physically happens next?

Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani and pledged to "defend Zohran Mamdani from Trump and the threat of a federal takeover of the city." She said she would be "fearless" in fighting Trump's agenda. But what does that actually mean when ICE shows up?

The president of the United States has explicitly said "we'll have to arrest him." His White House press secretary said allegations against Mamdani "should be investigated." This is not hypothetical. Trump has spent ten years saying he would do things that people dismissed as bluster, then doing exactly what he said. He said he would ban Muslims. He did. He said he would separate families at the border. He did. He said he would overturn Roe. He did. He said he would refuse to accept election results. He did. He said he would prosecute political opponents. He is doing it right now with Letitia James and James Comey.

When Trump says he will arrest Mamdani, we should believe him. That means Hochul should be asked to answer some specific questions right now, before federal agents are already at Mamdani's door.

If ICE attempts to unjustly arrest Zohran Mamdani, will you order the New York State Police to physically intervene and prevent that arrest? Will you deploy the National Guard to protect an elected state official from unconstitutional federal detention? Will you instruct the NYPD to refuse cooperation with unconstitutional federal arrest warrants? Will you prosecute federal agents under state law if they conduct arrests without proper legal authority? Will you use every tool of state sovereignty to physically prevent federal agents from taking custody of New York's elected officials as part of authoritarian power grabs?