US Rep. Kweisi Mfume of Maryland says Trump, Musk should be arrested

Ben Mause, Baltimore Sun on May 8, 2025

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U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who acknowledged his statement may sound “crazy and ludicrous,” said that President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk should be arrested.

The Maryland Democrat’s comments came during a Thursday afternoon press conference, during which most of the state’s congressional delegation voiced indignation over the administration’s impact on their home state.

“It’s a damn shame what’s happening to our nation under the guise of this Trump administration and his department of government evil,” Mfume said, referencing the Department of Government Efficiency. Trump and Musk, “in my opinion, deserve to be arrested and charged with assault on the Constitution.”

Mfume joined his colleagues in lambasting cuts to federal agencies and other policies after the delegation met to consider the scope of cuts across the state.

As soon as he was sworn into his second term, Trump deployed Musk to make sweeping cuts across government agencies in the president’s effort to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. Maryland, which neighbors Washington, D.C., and is home to more than 160,000 federal workers, has been one of the most impacted states in the country.

Mfume’s comments amplified the bitter divisions between many Democrats and Trump and echoed the sentiments of the president’s first term when former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House led impeachment efforts against him. As new calls for his impeachment have emerged from Democrats this term — which is extremely unlikely in the Republican-led Congress — Trump has blasted the opposition party as “really out of control.”

“They have lost everything, especially their minds!” Trump said in a Truth Social post last week.

On Thursday, none of Maryland’s congressional delegation called for impeachment. They stayed focused on the Trump administration’s impact on Maryland.

“We are guess-timating what the costs are going to be and then what are our priorities,” Rep. April McClain Delaney told The Sun. Those priorities, said Delaney, include keeping funding for agencies and protecting Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

It’s an easy mission to articulate but much harder to enact. With Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, Democrats have limited legislative ability beyond slowing the GOP agenda.

When the House Natural Resources Committee met to mark up its bill this week, Democrats, including Rep. Sarah Elfreth of Howard County, introduced a bevy of amendments and delayed the bill’s advancement until the middle of the night. None of the amendments passed. A similar fate is expected during the House Agriculture Committee markup next week.

“It’s going to be an unbelievable, around-the-clock markup,” McClain Delaney, the delegation’s lone Agriculture member, told reporters. There are “real issues” concerning how the bill will affect farmers and SNAP benefits, she added.

With their hands largely tied on policy decisions, the lawmakers said their focus will remain on opposing the Trump administration through other means.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, said they have filed several amicus briefs in federal cases concerning the legality of specific actions by the Trump administration. They have received multiple favorable rulings, including obtaining an injunction against the administration’s mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Raskin and others indicated that they will continue to hold and attend rallies, demonstrations and town halls that have become a form of resistance for many congressional Democrats.

“We’ve all been in demonstrations and protests,” Mfume said. “Our belief is that we have to resist, resist, resist.”

The delegation member with the most influence didn’t make an appearance. Rep Andy Harris, the delegation’s lone Republican, did not attend.

Harris is in the middle of contentious negotiations regarding a Republican spending bill that could significantly affect Maryland residents. As the leader of the House Freedom Caucus, Harris and other lawmakers are pushing for at least $1.5 trillion in federal spending cuts, including to Medicaid and SNAP benefits.

“Maryland has suffered disproportionately as a result of the cuts that we’ve seen,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said. “This is not an issue that is distant for us.”

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