Armed Arizona man arrested and charged for posting videos threatening Trump

By 
 November 28, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump, thanks in large part to how Democrats and the media have demonized him, has faced at least two known assassination attempts in recent months and likely countless other real and potential threats against his life.

On Monday, an Arizona man who'd posted multiple videos on social media of himself making threats against Trump while wielding firearms was arrested and charged with federal crimes, the New York Post reported.

Manuel Tamayo-Torres was placed in custody near San Diego, California, on Monday but will likely soon be extradited to Arizona to face the filed charges because that is where his alleged crimes occurred.

Threatening videos posted "on a near-daily basis"

According to ABC News, federal prosecutors described in court documents how Tamayo-Torres had posted on social media several videos in recent months that featured him holding an AR-15-style rifle while making "vague yet direct threats" against President-elect Trump and members of his family "on a near-daily basis."

"[Y]ou're gonna die," he allegedly said in one video he posted last week. "[Y]our son's gonna die. Your whole family is going to die. ... I'm going to put a hole in your face."

Tamayo-Torres also made several bizarre claims in some of his video, including that he had witnessed Trump and Secret Service agents kidnap his daughter -- it is unclear if he actually has any children -- and others to be sex trafficked.

One video was filmed and posted from outside a Trump rally

According to The Hill, prosecutors revealed that Tamayo-Torres had filmed and posted one of his threatening videos from outside a campaign rally for President-elect Trump in Arizona in August.

On August 23, the same day that Trump personally accepted Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s endorsement during a rally at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, Tamayo-Torres threatened to kill the former and future president.

It was, of course, at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in mid-July that Trump was grazed on the ear by a bullet fired by a would-be assassin on a nearby rooftop with a rifle who tried to kill Trump but instead killed a rally-goer and wounded two others who were behind him.

Roughly two months later, in mid-September, another would-be assassin was thwarted when he was discovered by Secret Service agents while hiding in some bushes with a rifle alongside Trump's golf course near Mar-a-Lago in South Florida.

Charged with making threats, false statements

According to ABC News, when federal investigators searched Tamayo-Torres' home they discovered the AR-15-style rifle seen in the threatening videos plus another rifle, a pistol, a tactical-style shotgun, ammunition, and magazines.

He has thus far been charged with one count of making threats against a president. He has also been charged with four counts of making false statements during the purchase of a firearm.

Those four charges stem from lies he'd told on the federal gun purchase form when he fraudulently swore that he'd never been convicted of a felony.

As it turns out, Tamayo-Torres was convicted of felony assault in 2003 and was therefore prohibited by federal law from purchasing or possessing any firearms.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson