Crime & Safety
VA Man Arrested For Threatening To Kill President Trump
The former U.S. Coast Guard officer was arrested after prosecutors said he spent years making online threats toward the president.
OAKTON, VA — A Fairfax County man is facing charges after authorities said he used multiple social media platforms to threaten to kill President Donald Trump.
According to court documents obtained by CBS News, Peter Stinson of Oakton was arrested Monday after he spent years making violent death threats toward the president on X, BlueSky, Instagram and Reddit.
Prosecutors said Stinson spent more than 30 years working for the U.S. Coast Guard. During his time with the agency, he achieved the rank of lieutenant and received sharpshooter ribbons for both pistol and rifle. Stinson also worked as an instructor for FEMA's Incident Command Systems.
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According to prosecutors, Stinson was a self-proclaimed member of Antifa, a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. Starting in 2020, prosecutors said Stinson started sharing threatening posts on X. According to court documents, he made statements including:
- "The orange must go. At any cost.”
- "I would do it. I would take the fall to save America. Too bad I don’t have the operational skills to pull it off."
- "There must be somebody who can take care of this. Just end this chapter."
Stinson's posts allegedly continued through the 2024 presidential election and into 2025, according to court documents. Several posts also referenced the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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"Three inches to the right, and the shot woulda gone through the eyeball," Stinson said, according to court documents. "Practice. Practice. Practice. And to die in the process. If you’re going to do something big, get it right."
On June 9, prosecutors said Stinson reportedly posted "8647" on his Instagram page. Later, a user in the comments then tagged FBI Director Kash Patel.
"This guy is calling for the president’s assassination in his post description. I’d like to see him charged and thrown in prison," the user said, according to court documents.
Stinson has not entered a plea to the charges and was ordered detained by a magistrate judge in Virginia, pending a detention hearing Wednesday, according to an ABC News report.
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