President Donald Trump speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
A Florida man has admitted to threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump, confessing that he wanted to drive to Mar-a-Lago and put the commander-in-chief in his crosshairs.
"I'm going to shoot … Donald Trump," wrote Diego Martin Villavicencio, 36, of Tallahassee, in a 2025 social media post.
Villavicencio pleaded guilty this week to sending interstate threats, impeding or retaliating against a federal official, and threats against the president. Federal prosecutors say he admitted that he "made the above threat to take the life of or to inflict bodily harm on the president of the United States and that he understood and meant those words as a true threat," according to court documents obtained by Law&Crime.
"The defendant knowingly and willfully wrote or said the words," the Justice Department said in a statement of facts filed Monday about Villavicencio's plea agreement. "He knew the posts would be viewed as a true threat."
Villavicencio was taken into custody in February and charged with threatening Trump and several other public officials, including former President Joe Biden.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Villavicencio used social media and the anonymous internet forum 4chan to publish repeated posts advocating violence against politicians, corporate executives, and the United States government.
One message cited by investigators that referenced Mar-a-Lago said, "I'll be driving there to take a couple shots at trump and some of the other corrupt plutocrats."
Other posts included:
Death to AmericaBomb AmericaBomb the federal reserveKill politiciansKill CEOsShoot Joe BidenShoot Donald TrumpEND CAPITALISMFREE THE PEOPLE.
According to investigators, Villavicencio also said things like "corruption listens to bullets" and "political violence is the only language plutocrats understand. I'll be killing soon."
"Court documents show that the defendant made multiple online threats of violence directed at President Donald J. Trump, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell over the course of several months," a DOJ press release says. Villavicencio faces up to 25 years in federal prison, with his conviction coming just days after Trump was targeted in an alleged assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
"As the terrifying events at the White House Correspondents Dinner this past weekend showed, threats of violence can quickly escalate to acts of violence by deranged individuals," U.S. Attorney John P. Heekin, for the Northern District of Florida, said in a statement. "My office is committed to aggressively prosecuting criminal threats of violence against public officials to stop dangerous individuals, like this defendant, before they become would-be assassins," Heekin concluded. "Criminal threats directed at public officials are becoming alarmingly more common, and this must stop now."
Villavicencio is scheduled to be sentenced on July 20.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.