A 45-year-old man from Massachusetts was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly making threats on Facebook to harm President Donald Trump. Andrew Emerald, after brandishing a sword in a menacing manner towards law enforcement officers, faced an eight-count indictment related to several posts from the previous year. The indictment, filed in federal court in Springfield, Massachusetts, claimed that Emerald had threatened to travel to the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida if Trump did not pass away by 2026.
According to the indictment, in a social media post from May 2025, Emerald wrote, “Either Trump is dead and in the ground by 2026 or I am hunting him down and putting him there.” The accused pleaded not guilty in court and was held without bail pending a detention hearing scheduled for Monday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation located Emerald based on a tip from a concerned citizen.
The indictment outlined that between May 2025 and July 2025, Emerald intentionally made eight separate Facebook posts threatening to harm President Trump. When FBI agents visited Emerald’s residence in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he initially refused to cooperate but later emerged with a long metallic sword. In one instance in July 2025, Emerald allegedly mentioned thrusting the sword through Trump’s throat in a Facebook post.
The charge of interstate transmission of threatening communications carries a potential sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. It is up to a federal district court judge to determine the final sentence based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. The information presented in the charging document is an accusation, and the defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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