Trump threatens to expel Zohran Mamdani, candidate of Muslim and Progressive Confession favorite for the town hall of New York

Still widely unknown a few months ago, Zohran Mamdani thwarted all the forecasts by winning, on Tuesday, July 1, the Democratic primary for the town hall of New York. Aged 33, Muslim and American citizen since 2018, he beat with a clear advance Andrew Cuomo, former governor and big favorite of the race. Mamdani will represent the Democrats during the municipal municipal election, for which he is now considered the favorite of polls.

His dazzling victory and his resolutely progressive positioning quickly attracted the hostility of Donald Trump. Since Florida, the president threatened to arrest and then deport Mamdani, by calling him “communist” and claiming that he would be “illegally in the country”. A baseless accusation, but which reflects the growing nervousness of the republican camp in the face of this rising figure of the New York left.

Trump justified his threat by attacking Mamdani’s positions against the operations of the Federal Immigration Agency (ICE). “In this case, we will have to arrest him,” he said at a press conference, in direct reaction to the candidate’s promise to end the migratory police interventions in working-class neighborhoods.

Among the Democrats, the reactions were shy. The representative Adriano Spaillat, president of the Hispanic Caucus at the Congress, denounced “totally unconstitutional” remarks, recalling that Mamdani is an American citizen. But few elected officials dared to display clear support, revealing the persistent tensions between the party’s establishment and its left wing. Trump, faithful to his polarization strategy, feeds a campaign marked by Islamophobia, racism and fear of immigration. For him, Zohran Mamdani embodies everything he fights: young, from immigration, Muslim and resolutely progressive. For a growing part of New York voters, on the contrary, it represents the future.