Trump’s Threat to Jail Foes Darkens, Prompting Epic Retort from Zohran

This week, President Donald Trump issued many angry threats against Zohran Mamdani, the underdog winner of New York Democratic mayoral primary. Trump has been attacking Mamdani, a state assemblyman, as a “Communist,” threatening to arrest him along with other foes, and questioning Mamdani’s U.S. citizenship—hinting at a possible effort to try to strip his citizenship away. What caught our eye is Mamdani’s response: It was sharply worded, illuminated the real stakes in this battle in a novel way, and effectively declared that the threat posed by Trump’s secret police to immigrants actually threatens us all. Democrats should learn from this, because Trump’s threats to denaturalize foes may soon become real. We talked to David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute. He explains what Trump would need to do to denaturalize Mamdani and other political opponents, what liberals and Democrats be preparing for right now, and why basic freedoms are hanging in the balance—for all of us. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.