US man arrested over Facebook posts threatening to kill Trump

NEW YORK — An American man has been arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Donald Trump, federal officials said Wednesday, 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 last year in which he threatened to injure and kill Trump, who was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet in 2024 as he campaigned for the presidency.

“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, according to a Department of Justice press release.

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In another expletive-laden post later that month, he apparently threatened to attack Trump’s resort in Florida.

“I’ll make sure you’re at Mar-a-Lago when I burn it to the f****** ground,” Emerald wrote.

An FBI court filing said that when 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.

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The FBI on Wednesday 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.”

Authorities previously questioned Emerald in 2018, during 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 Trump. In March, a Virginia man was sentenced to more than two years in prison for sending threats online to kill the US president.

Trump narrowly escaped an attempt on his life in July 2024 when a gunman opened fire at an election campaign rally in Pennsylvania. /dl