US man arrested over Facebook posts threatening to kill Trump
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US President Donald Trump has been the subject of a series of cases involving social media threats.
PHOTO: AFP
- Andrew Emerald, 45, was arrested for allegedly making threats to kill Donald Trump in Facebook posts.
- Emerald's posts included threats to hunt down Trump and burn down his Mar-a-Lago resort.
- Emerald faces up to five years in prison on eight counts of interstate transmission of threatening communications.
AI generated
NEW YORK – An American man has been arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Mr Donald Trump, federal officials said on April 1, outlining a series of Facebook posts targeting the US President.
Andrew Emerald, 45, is said to have written eight messages on the social media platform in which he threatened to injure and kill Mr Trump, who was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet in 2024.
“Either Trump is dead and in the ground by 2026 or I am hunting him down and putting him there,” Emerald allegedly wrote in one post in May 2025.
In another expletive-laden post later in May, he apparently threatened to attack Mr Trump’s personal resort in Florida.
“I’ll make sure you’re at Mar-a-Lago when I burn it to the f****** ground,” Emerald wrote.
An Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) court filing said that when the authorities executed an arrest warrant at his home in Massachusetts, Emerald refused to come outside, appeared to brandish a long metal sword and told agents they would have to shoot him.
He eventually left the residence peacefully after a crisis negotiator and local police officer persuaded him to do so, the document stated.
The FBI on April 1 shared pictures of several swords and blades apparently found inside Emerald’s home.
In one Facebook post, he allegedly wrote: “I plan to go to DC with my sword (sword emoji) and kill trump and as (many) of the domestic terrorist he emboldens as I can.”
The authorities previously questioned Emerald in 2018, during Mr Trump’s first term, over a possible threat to shoot the president, according to the court filing.
Emerald was arrested after being indicated on March 19 on eight counts of interstate transmission of threatening communications, a charge that carries up to five years in prison.
There have been several similar cases involving social media threats against Mr Trump.
In March, a Virginia man was sentenced to more than two years in prison for sending threats online to kill the US President.
Mr Trump narrowly escaped an attempt on his life in July 2024 when a gunman opened fire at an election campaign rally in Pennsylvania. AFP
