Three University of South Alabama students were arrested Friday and now face federal charges over alleged social media threats against President Donald Trump made in the days before his evening rally at the school's Mitchell Center, according to Fox News, which cited a source familiar with the matter.
The federal cases were unsealed Friday afternoon, hours ahead of Trump's scheduled appearance, the outlet Lagniappe Daily reported. Each of the three students was charged with threatening the president, according to Fox News.
Court records made public Friday show the alleged threats were posted separately and were not linked to one another, al.com reported.
FBI investigators found the posts while running social media intelligence searches before the president's visit, then used emergency disclosure requests and information from University of South Alabama police to identify the students, according to FBI affidavits cited by Lagniappe Daily.
One student allegedly wrote a threatening remark aimed at Trump beneath a TikTok post about the planned campus visit, per an FBI affidavit cited by the outlet. Another student allegedly posted on X that people would "remember the University of South Alabama the same way they remember Utah Valley University," according to Lagniappe's account of the affidavit.
The University of South Alabama responded with a statement to Fox News Digital that condemned threats while drawing a line between speech and intimidation.
"The University of South Alabama unequivocally condemns any form of threats directed at elected officials or any individual with whom we disagree," the statement read. "We encourage open dialogue and active civic participation, and having a difference of opinion is a natural part of any vibrant community. However, there is a clear line between exercising free expression and engaging in intimidation or unlawful conduct."
The FBI's Mobile Division said the individuals had made "threatening communications" toward Trump and tied the arrests to the September 2025 National Security Presidential Memorandum on countering domestic terrorism and organized political violence, known as NSPM-7.
"These arrests are a result of the FBI's continued efforts to identify and mitigate targeted violence, threats, and criminal activity against government personnel, entities, and operations," the FBI's Mobile office said, adding the operation was closely coordinated with the Joint Mission Center.
The U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office, University of South Alabama and its police department, Mobile police, Saraland police and the Alabama Fusion Center all assisted, according to the FBI.
Trump took the stage Friday evening as scheduled. It was a return to Mobile roughly 11 years after his 2015 rally in the city during the opening months of his first presidential campaign.
"It sort of all began here," Trump told the crowd, recalling the 2015 event.
The arrests landed quietly compared with the wall-to-wall coverage that followed other high-profile threat cases. Dissenter, a conservative outlet covering the story, noted the silence on the left, asking where the "threat to democracy" outrage has gone now that the targets are on the other side of the political aisle.
It is not yet known whether any of the three students have entered pleas or retained attorneys, and federal prosecutors have not announced what penalties they intend to pursue. Threatening the president is a federal offense that can carry years in prison.
The timing is what stands out. In the span of a few hours Friday, social media posts became federal charges, and a campaign rally went on as planned. Whatever a jury eventually decides, the cases are now part of a broader federal posture under NSPM-7, which directs agencies to treat threats and organized political violence against government personnel as a priority target set. The same intelligence machinery that surfaced these three posts will be running at every stop on the president's midterm tour.
Our Take
Here is the part the legacy media will not put on your screen: three people allegedly posted threats to kill a sitting president, and the story barely registered. When the target was a politician the press liked, we got wall-to-wall panels and a national conversation about the soul of the country. Now the FBI does its job, the Secret Service does its job, and local and campus police do their jobs, and suddenly the enthusiasm evaporates.
Let's be clear about what this is and what it isn't. Nobody at Next News Network is defending anyone who threatens the life of the president. That is a federal crime, it has been a federal crime for a very long time, and the people who commit it should face a court. If these three students wrote what the affidavits say they wrote, they can explain it to a judge. Free speech does not cover credible threats, and it never has. The university put it exactly right: there is a line between opinion and intimidation.
What matters now is that the line gets enforced the same way no matter who is in office. For years, conservatives watched federal agencies treat Antifa and BLM-adjacent violence as understandable outbursts while treating parents at school board meetings as domestic terrorists. Patriots have every right to be skeptical of the FBI. That skepticism was earned. So the test for NSPM-7 is simple: apply it evenly, in both directions, in every administration to come. Put the same energy into threats against a Republican president as the last DOJ put into harassing Trump supporters.
Trump walked out on that stage Friday night and told the crowd it all began in Mobile. Eleven years later, the man is still drawing thousands, still filling arenas, and the people who allegedly threatened to end his life are sitting in federal custody. The rally went on. That is the answer.
Keep your eyes on how this case is handled. Unequal justice is how the administrative state keeps its grip. Equal justice is how We the People take it back.
