Federal Threat Charges Filed Against Tewksbury Teen Over Online Posts
An 18-year-old Tewksbury, Massachusetts, resident has been charged with threatening to kill President Donald Trump after federal investigators linked him to multiple social media accounts featuring violent extremism.
Trenton Touch faces a single criminal complaint charging him with making a threat against the president, an offense that carries a potential sentence of up to five years in prison. Court documents indicate that authorities first received information regarding the accounts on September 10, setting off an investigation that culminated in a search of properties.
FBI Tracks Threatening Instagram Posts
Investigators from the FBI Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force tracked four separate Instagram accounts allegedly operated by Touch. The digital trail dates back to June 21, when investigators say an account posted an image of a firearm paired with the message, im gonna kill trump,
alongside the addendum, not yet unc I suck at shooting past 200 yards.
🚨#BREAKING: An #FBI Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation with @TewksburyPD has led to Trenton Touch, of Tewksbury, MA, being charged with allegedly threatening to kill the President of the United States. Touch also allegedly threatened to commit a school shooting.… pic.twitter.com/gHRMUkWKzv
The messaging expanded in scope over the summer months. Touch began messaging hundreds of people online about acquiring firearms, expressing frustration with local police after his application for a firearms identification card was denied and declaring that he was gonna flip out.
Beyond threats directed at the president, charging documents reveal that the accounts contained detailed threats to carry out a school shooting. Authorities noted that Touch frequently glorified mass shooters, referring to them as heroes
and repeatedly referencing the 2019 Christchurch shootings in New Zealand, which claimed 51 lives.
The digital footprint triggered intervention when Meta alerted the FBI to the accounts in September. By October 26, local and federal law enforcement secured a search warrant for Touch’s residence on Grasshopper Lane in Tewksbury.
The early morning raid startled neighborhood residents. Richard Frank, a Vietnam veteran living nearby, recalled hearing a loud flash-bang explosion around 6:00 a.m. that shook his home before officers converged on the property, screaming and detaining a suspect.
During the subsequent searches of the Tewksbury residence and his grandparents’ home in New Hampshire, investigators recovered a revolver-style firearm that allegedly matched the weapon pictured in the social media threats. Authorities also seized camouflage clothing, military-style knives, a hatchet, and a ballistics helmet.
Prosecutors Detail White Supremacist Ideology and Threats
Federal and local prosecutors emphasized the severity of the seized materials and the alleged ideological underpinnings of the case. United States Attorney Leah Foley stated that the threats could not be ignored,
noting that threatening the President of the United States constitutes a serious crime not protected by free speech.
Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, Ted E. Docks, pointed directly to the physical evidence recovered during the operation. Trenton Touch is an alleged white supremacist who now stands accused of threatening to kill the President,
Docks said, adding that the recovery of the firearm, military-style knives, a hatchet, and a ballistics helmet demonstrated that the teenager allegedly possessed the means to execute the threats, posing a grave threat to public safety.
Investigators also recovered items related to white supremacist and Nazi ideology during the searches.
Touch was initially arrested on state gun charges and ordered held on $50,000 cash bail. He remains in state custody while awaiting his initial appearance in federal court in Boston, which is scheduled for November 9. The allegations against him have not yet been proven in court, and he is presumed innocent.
