Main: President Donald Trump leaves Marine One after arriving on the White House South Lawn on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Inset, top to bottom: Trenton Touch (Tewksbury Police Department) and an image of a firearm allegedly posted by Touch on Instagram (DOJ).
An 18-year-old Massachusetts man is accused of threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump after allegedly posting, “im gonna kill trump,” in one of numerous violent online statements cited by federal investigators.
Trenton Touch was arrested Oct. 26 and charged with one felony count of threatening to kill the president, according to court records.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Massachusetts says Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, alerted authorities to four accounts that appeared to contain threats of violence. Investigators allege all four accounts were connected to Touch, who frequently switched among them while participating in multiple chat groups.
According to the complaint, Touch’s accounts contained “multiple communications in which he threatened to kill other individuals,” including an alleged threat to “shoot up a school.”
On June 21, one account allegedly sent another Instagram user a photograph of a rifle along with the messages, “it’s time,” “im gonna kill trump,” and “not yet unc i suck at shooting past 200 yards.”
In another alleged exchange, Touch sent an Instagram direct message on July 2 stating, “we need to kill politicians.”
Investigators said Touch repeatedly referenced mass shooters in his online communications, sometimes describing them as “heroes.” Authorities said he particularly praised attackers whose violence was motivated by racial extremism.
Authorities also alleged that Touch had enough technical knowledge to evade social media platforms’ systems for detecting violent material.
“Touch created videos and ‘shooter edits,’ that intentionally had video overlays in an effort to hide the content from social media algorithms used to detect and remove the graphic content,” the complaint states. “Touch often shared these videos and directed people where to find the actual shooting videos without the overlay.”
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The complaint says Touch repeatedly mentioned the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand, massacre, in which 51 people were killed. In August, he allegedly wrote that there “should be a Christchurch happening every single day of every single week.”
In another alleged exchange with an Instagram user, Touch wrote, “if every single governor died to assassination tomorrow, a 4th reich could be founded by next week,” and, “literally anything could happen, people just need to die.”
Investigators also said Touch was attempting to buy a firearm and seeking firearms training.
During a search of Touch’s home, authorities said they found a revolver-style handgun, camouflage clothing, a ballistics helmet, military-style knives and a hatchet.
Items authorities allegedly recovered from Touch’s home (DOJ)
After the arrest, the FBI said Touch allegedly not only threatened to kill the president but also “had the means to do it.”
“There’s no question Mr. Touch posed a grave threat to public safety,” Ted Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, said in a statement.
Touch is due in court on Nov. 9, court records show. If convicted of threatening the president, he could face up to five years in prison and a fine of as much as $250,000.
The post ‘im gonna kill Trump’: Man allegedly threatened to assassinate the president and ‘had the means to do it,’ FBI says first appeared on Law & Crime.
