Zohran Mamdani sat at George Washington's desk and trashed the country that made him a citizen.
Now one voice in his movement wants to rewrite the Constitution just to put him one office higher.
One democratic socialist just said the quiet part about exactly how far they are willing to go.
A Podcast Host Puts His Movement's Real Goal in Writing
Deep Singh Badhesha did not bury his ambition in a think piece or a policy paper.
He put it in a single social media post for the whole country to see.
"DSA should push for a constitutional amendment so naturalized citizens can run for President," Badhesha wrote on social media.
He followed it with the ticket he has already picked out, Mamdani for president and Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros for vice president.
There is one problem: neither one was born inside the United States.
Mamdani came to the country from Uganda and became a citizen in 2018.
Kiros immigrated from Ethiopia as a baby and just won the Democratic nomination for Colorado's 1st Congressional District, defeating 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette.
Both were born ineligible for the offices Badhesha wants to hand them.
Kiros would also fail the Constitution's 35-year-old minimum for vice president by the time 2028 arrives.
None of that stopped a leading voice in Mamdani's movement from saying the plan out loud.
The Founders Built a Wall Two-Thirds of Congress Would Have to Tear Down
Article II of the Constitution requires the president be a natural born citizen, not simply a citizen.
Getting rid of that requirement means clearing Congress by a two-thirds margin in each chamber, then winning approval from three out of every four state legislatures.
Justice Joseph Story explained why the founders built the wall that high.
The requirement protects the country from "ambitious foreigners, who might otherwise be intriguing for the office," according to the annotated Constitution published by Congress.
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch tried to tear down that same wall back in 2003 so Arnold Schwarzenegger could run.
That effort, nicknamed the Arnold Amendment, never became law.
Badhesha wants Democratic socialists to succeed where Hatch failed, and to do it for a man who just insulted America on its 250th birthday.
Mamdani used the nation's semiquincentennial to accuse ICE agents of "terrorizing our streets," according to Fox News, while sitting behind Washington's desk flanked by newly naturalized citizens.
Elon Musk had a one-line response to the mayor's rhetoric, according to RedState: "Mamdani has built nothing. He is a taker, never a maker."
Mamdani tried to walk back the speech with a softer post about "righteous dissent," according to Townhall.
Nobody who watched the original speech bought the cleanup job.
Badhesha's amendment demand shows why the walk-back never mattered.
The goal was never patriotism.
The goal is power, and the Constitution's citizenship requirement is simply the last thing standing between Mamdani and the Oval Office.
Kiros already proved how fast the machine can move.
She beat a three-decade incumbent by nearly 7,000 votes and became part of a wave that has now toppled seven sitting House Democrats this cycle.
Two more DSA-aligned candidates knocked off incumbents in New York the same week Kiros won in Denver.
That is not a coincidence, and it is not slowing down.
A movement that can flip safe Democratic seats in a matter of months is now floating a plan to flip the presidency itself, one amendment at a time.
The natural born citizen clause has survived more than two centuries and two dozen attempts to erase it.
Badhesha's post is the first one that comes with a movement this organized, and a candidate this openly ambitious, standing behind it.
He said it just days after Mamdani's desk stunt and Kiros's primary win, which makes it read less like a stray thought and more like a trial balloon for the whole DSA.
Sources:
- Randy DeSoto, "DSA Just Said It Out Loud – Strike Down Constitutional Ban on Foreign Presidents, Get Mamdani in the White House," The Western Journal, July 14, 2026.
- Peter Pinedo, "Mamdani Blasts ICE Agents, Elon Musk and 'Supremacy' in America 250 Speech," Fox News, July 3, 2026.
- Amy Curtis, "Mamdani Does Damage Control After His Despicable Anti-American 250th Anniversary Speech," Townhall, July 6, 2026.
- Ward Clark, "Mamdani's Anti-American Meltdown: Oligarchs, ICE, and 'Supremacy' on America 250," RedState, July 4, 2026.
- "Natural Born Citizen Clause," Annotated Constitution, Congress.gov.
