Man arrested for threats against Trump during border visit
Bisbee, Arizona: A southern Arizona man was arrested for allegedly making death threats against Donald Trump on social media, authorities said on Friday (AEST), the same day the Republican former president and 2024 candidate was in the area to visit the US-Mexico border.
The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspect as Ronald Lee Syrvud, 66, from the city of Benson. Trump’s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, also recently visited the area.
Ronald Lee Syrvud was arrested over an alleged online threat made to Donald Trump.Credit: Cochise County SO/Facebook
The sheriff’s office said Syrvud arrested about 2.30pm. It did not describe the alleged threats or provide other details on the arrest.
An online search failed to turn up any social media accounts in Syrvud’s name or any contact information for him.
The sheriff’s office said Syrvud was also wanted on several outstanding warrants in Wisconsin for driving under the influence and failing to appear in court, as well as a felony hit-run charge in Graham County, Arizona, and failing to register as a sex offender in Coconino County, Arizona.
Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13. On Wednesday, at his first outdoor rally since the attempt, he spoke from behind bulletproof glass in North Carolina at an event focused on national security.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at the border with Mexico on Thursday.Credit: AP
Joining Thursday’s border visit were the mothers of children who were killed during the Biden administration in cases where the suspects are immigrants in the country illegally.
Trump frequently highlights attacks involving immigrants to fuel concerns about the Biden administration policies, though some studies have found that people living in the US illegally are less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug and property crimes.
“I just really, really, really want everybody to please take into consideration how important border control is because we’re losing very innocent people to heinous crimes,” said Alexis Nungaray, the mother of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was strangled to death in Houston in June.
At the Arizona event, snipers stood nearby at an elevated position, their eyes and weapons pointed towards Mexico, a day after Trump held his first outdoor rally since an assassination attempt last month. Security forces were also visible on the Mexican side of the border, including several men with rifles and tactical gear. Others wore uniforms identifying them as members of the Mexican state police.
“What Biden and Kamala [Harris] have done to the families here with me and so many others, thousands and thousands of others, not only killed, but also really badly hurt, badly hurt to a point where they’ll never lead a normal life again. It’s shameful, and it’s evil,” Trump said.
The Biden administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the wall materials that were lying there at the site during the visit.
In his tour of battleground states this week, Trump has travelled to Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina and will hold events in Las Vegas and the Phoenix suburb of Glendale on Friday. His running mate, Vance, spoke at the same location near the border a few weeks ago.
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