President-elect Donald Trump delivers remarks during a meeting with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago, on Thursday, January 9, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci).
A Pennsylvania man has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Donald Trump days before his second presidential inauguration.
The Justice Department has reported that Jacob Buckley, a 22-year-old, posted threatening messages on TikTok aimed at Trump, who was the president-elect at the time. This was revealed in an official press release.
In a plea agreement submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Buckley confessed to writing threatening messages. These included statements such as, “I hate MAGA republicans, bro, on god I’ll kill all of them” and “I’m going to kill Trump.”
On the same date, using his account Jacob_buckley, he further posted, “Bro we going into a literal oligarchy in 4 days and I’m going to kill Trump,” as indicated by court documents.
Buckley faces a potential prison sentence of up to five years, a fine of $250,000, and possibly up to three years of supervised release. The exact timing for the sentencing is not yet determined.
Trump started his second term in office on January 20 with his inauguration ceremony. Since then, numerous federal cases have been initiated against citizens accused of threatening his life.
Last month, a 37-year-old man in Rhode Island wrote on the president’s own social media platform – Truth Social – that “It’s a shame you won’t get to see the end of your f—ing term, adding that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi would get a “bullet to the head,” according to federal officials.
Also in July, a Michigan man pleaded guilty to threatening to assassinate Trump and Vice President JD Vance, writing that if either of them ever returned to where he lives, they would be leaving “in a body bag.”
Trump was almost killed by a shooter in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in July 2024 while holding a campaign rally. That gunman was killed by law enforcement, but an attendee of the rally was killed. Months later, a man was reportedly lying in wait with a rifle for Trump at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect, Ryan Routh, faces several charges, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate.
