An individual from the United States has been taken into custody for allegedly making threats against Donald Trump, as per federal officials who revealed a series of Facebook posts directed at the US president. Andrew Emerald, aged 45, reportedly composed eight messages on the social media platform last year, where he made threats to harm and kill Trump. The president had a near miss with a bullet from a potential assassin in 2024 during his campaign for the presidency.
In one of the posts from May 2025, Emerald supposedly wrote, “Either Trump is dead and in the ground by 2026 or I am hunting him down and putting him there,” according to a Department of Justice announcement. Another post in the same month, filled with profanity, hinted at an attack on Trump’s Florida resort with the statement, “I’ll make sure you’re at Mar-a-Lago when I burn it to the f****** ground,” as attributed to Emerald.
According to an FBI court submission, when authorities arrived at his residence in Massachusetts with an arrest warrant, Emerald refused to exit, wielded a lengthy metal sword, and challenged agents to shoot him. Eventually, he cooperated and exited peacefully following negotiations with a crisis negotiator and local law enforcement.
The FBI disclosed images of various swords and blades reportedly discovered within Emerald’s residence. In one of his Facebook posts, he allegedly mentioned, “I plan to go to DC with my sword [sword emoji] and kill Trump and as (many) of the domestic terrorists he emboldens as I can.”
Emerald had been previously questioned in 2018, during Trump’s initial term, regarding a potential threat to shoot the president, as per the court filing. He was apprehended after being formally charged on March 19 with eight counts of interstate transmission of threatening communications, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.
There have been numerous instances of similar threats made on social media against Trump. Recently, in March, a man from Virginia was sentenced to over two years in prison for sending online threats to kill the US president. Trump narrowly avoided an assassination attempt in July 2024 when a gunman opened fire at an election campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
