Andrew Emerald, a 45‑year‑old man from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, has been arrested and charged with eight counts of interstate transmission of threatening communications for a series of Facebook posts in which he pledged to kill President Donald Trump on live television and hang his body from the Statue of Liberty. The Justice Department says Emerald repeatedly referred to Trump as a “monster” and framed his threats as acts of patriotism and “constitutional duty” rather than simple murder.
What he allegedly posted
Federal prosecutors say Emerald’s threats spanned from May to July 2025 and included posts where he vowed to “take out the orange menace” and called his statements “not a threat, that’s a f—ing promise.” In one May 15, 2025, post, he wrote that Trump was being a “monster to humanity” and that he would kill him on public TV, then hang his body from the Statue of Liberty until it rotted and fell into the ocean.
He also claimed past violent behavior, saying he had “burned a house to the ground once” and would do the same to Mar‑a‑Lago, and later argued that “killing is not wrong” when “putting down a predator.” On June 14, 2025, he wrote that he was “executing a monster” and “fulfilling my constitutional duty to execute a criminal citizen that’s committed high treason,” directly tying his threats to the U.S. Constitution.
History with the FBI and legal outlook
The affidavit says the FBI has been aware of Emerald since 2018, when he previously posted online that politicians in Washington, including Trump, should be “publicly executed” to “clean things up.” At that time, he promised to stop posting about politics and was warned that his comments could be criminal, yet he allegedly kept using the same Facebook account for new threats.
He now faces up to five years in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine on each of the eight counts if convicted. Emerald is scheduled for a detention hearing on Monday, where prosecutors are expected to argue he poses a serious risk to public safety, while his defense will likely focus on his First Amendment rights and whether his posts were merely hyperbolic political speech.
