A former Coast Guard lieutenant has been arrested after making death threats against President Donald Trump.
According to an affidavit from the FBI, Peter Stinson, who served for 33 years in the U.S. Coast Guard and received awards for sharpshooting, allegedly made threats on social media that involved statements of using a gun, knife, and poison against Trump.
In one social media message, Stinson wrote, “Can we crowd source a contract hit?” In another instance, he wrote, “Does it make me a bad person to want [explicit] dead? Would I be a bad person if I pulled the trigger?”
Just last week, Stinson wrote online, “When he dies, the party is going to be yuge.”
The former Coast Guard lieutenant has “self-identified as a member of ANTIFA,” the affidavit states, listing an instance where Stinson wrote, “Sure. This is war. Sides will be drawn. Antifa always wins in the end. Violence is inherently necessary.”
The threats follow two assassination attempts on Trump last year. Threats have also been made against government officials and politicians in recent years. Earlier this month, a man from Romania, Thomasz Szabo, pled guilty to a “years-long conspiracy” that targeted people across the United States, the Department of Justice explained.
Szabo founded an online group that “engaged in a pattern of bomb threats” and “swatting,” the DOJ said. The Romanian made false reports to law enforcement beginning in 2020. In 2023 and early 2024, Szabo targeted 25 Members of Congress, “at least six then-current or former senior U.S. Executive Branch officials, including multiple cabinet-level officials; at least 13 then-current or former senior federal law enforcement officials, including the heads of multiple federal law enforcement agencies; multiple members of the federal judiciary; at least 27 then-current or former state government officials or family members of such officials; at least four religious institutions; and multiple members of the media.”
