President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that "we'll have to arrest" New York City Democrat mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani if he fights to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents out. 

"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 said while touring the new "Alligator Alcatraz" immigrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades, reports Newsweek.

Mamdani, a state assemblyman and self-described democratic socialist who defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and several other candidates to take the nomination last week, has said that his administration will focus on keeping ICE out of the city's facilities and end cooperation with the agency. 

Trump also hinted at questions about Mamdani's citizenship. 

"We're going to be watching that very carefully," Trump said. "A lot of people are saying he's here illegally. Ideally, he's going to be less than a communist. But right now that's a communist, that's not a socialist."

Mamdani, 33, was born in Uganda but became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 2018. His parents are Mahmood Mamdani, who is now a postcolonial studies professor at Columbia University, and Mira Nair, an Indian-American filmmaker.

The assemblyman has denied being a communist, and has criticized Trump, claiming on his campaign website that the president is "tearing at the fabric of New York City in his second term" and that he has "deployed ICE agents to pluck New Yorkers from their families."

Trump earlier on Tuesday, before leaving for Florida, told reporters on the White House South Lawn that the administration will "have a lot of fun" with Mamdani if he is elected mayor, and called him a "total nut job," reports The New York Post. 

"He has to go right through this building to get his money," said Trump. "Don't worry, he's not gonna run away with anything."

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