1. United States
2. Maine
3. Letter

You need to publicly condemn President Trump's decision to amplify calls for the imprisonment and deportation of American citizens based on their political beliefs. On July 4th, Trump shared a video explicitly naming Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders as people who should be "criminalized and deported." That is not political rhetoric — that is a sitting president endorsing the removal of citizens from their own country for holding legal political views. This is a constitutional line, not a partisan one. The First Amendment does not have an ideology exemption. Democratic socialism is a legal political position held by elected officials who won their seats through free and fair elections. Calling for their deportation — and sharing that call from the White House platform — is an attack on the foundation of representative democracy. I don't care where you stand on their policies. Your job is to defend the rule of law, and right now that means saying clearly and on the record that this is unacceptable.