Man threatened to kill Trump in race war plot

Federal prosecutors have charged an 18-year-old Tewksbury man with threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump.

The suspect, identified as Trenton Touch, allegedly sent a direct message on Instagram on June 21 that included a photo of himself holding what appears to be a scoped rifle.

According to the criminal complaint filed Oct. 30, the message contained three statements: “it’s time,” “im gonna kill trump,” and “not yet unc i suck at shooting past 200 yards.”

The case was unsealed Thursday by U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Paul G. Levenson.

Touch is scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court in Boston on Monday.

The charges stem from a referral made by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.

Meta disclosed the threats to the FBI in September after new algorithms designed to identify violence on its platforms flagged multiple accounts linked to Touch.

An FBI affidavit submitted in the case identifies four Instagram accounts allegedly used by Touch: “Noctulianmumma,” “trentontou2,” “suwiishwiwheieb,” and “fascistlarper2.”

According to the affidavit, Meta reported that these accounts “submitted multiple communications in which he threatened to kill other individuals.”

Beyond the threats against Trump, Touch allegedly said, “I just want to kill a few people like you before I die.”

He also expressed a desire for “larping while shooting a place up” and hanging someone.

“LARPing” is slang for “Live Action Role-playing,” in which participants dress up as characters to act out games.

The FBI affidavit states that Touch expressed a fascination with mass shooters, particularly those motivated by racist extremism.

He allegedly referred to such shooters as his “heroes.”

Touch is said to have shared videos of shootings, beheadings, and other graphic acts with others.

According to the affidavit, he edited these videos in ways designed to fool algorithms that would otherwise block the material.

He would then direct users to the locations of unedited versions of the videos.

FBI Special Agent Alistair Brockmeyer wrote in the affidavit: “Violent extremists may watch graphic videos depicting extreme violence and gore in an effort to desensitize themselves to violence.”

Brockmeyer noted that Touch was particularly interested in the perpetrator of the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shooting, which killed 51 people.

Touch allegedly said, “All these nons deserve is more killings in their plac” — a reference to non-white individuals, according to the affidavit.

The charge of threatening the president of the United States is a federal felony.

Conviction carries a potential sentence of up to five years in prison, fines, and supervised release.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Meta’s role in detecting the threat has drawn attention because the company deployed new algorithms specifically to flag violent content before human moderators review it.

This marks a shift from the company’s previous reliance on user reports and manual review.

In this instance, the automated systems identified the threats and triggered a referral to law enforcement.

The timing of the disclosure — September 2026 — means Touch’s alleged threats were active for about three months before the FBI was alerted.

It remains unclear whether the FBI took any investigative steps between the referral and the filing of charges on Oct. 30.

The affidavit does not indicate whether Touch had access to firearms or whether any weapons were seized.

Touch’s alleged statements about his marksmanship — “i suck at shooting past 200 yards” — have led some to question his capability to carry out the threat.

However, the affidavit notes that he expressed an intent to kill and demonstrated knowledge of firearms.

The case has been assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

A spokesperson for that office declined to comment beyond the court filings.

Touch’s attorney has not been identified, and no statement from legal counsel has been made public.