Lawmen believe trip from Carolinas to Washington a threat to Trump

By Alan Wooten
The Center Square

An Army veteran lawmen believed was going to travel from the Carolinas to Washington in an attempt to kill President Donald Trump will be in federal court on Monday.

Daniel Swain was taken from Tidal Wave Auto Spa in the North Carolina community of Apex on Wednesday. He’s accused of making violent political threats that drew the U.S. Secret Service, the State Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and a bomb squad to the Lake Pine Drive location.

According to the federal complaint, “The defendant, did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States.” He’s charged with communicating a threat against the president.

If convicted, he could face five years in prison.

Swain, of Summerville, S.C., was in a Wake County District Court on Thursday, with a detainer applied by the Secret Service. Initial charges were resisting a public officer, possession of methamphetamine and a fictitious license plate. The judge said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina was obtaining a criminal complaint and arrest warrant for threats against the presidency.

Apex police said he had written threatening messages on the outside of his vehicle. One message read, “headed to WSH to kill the Pres.” The rear window messages said, “Tell Donald he is fired,” “5 dead 5 years,” and “3 Navy, Teacher & Trucker.”

A message on the passenger side window told the read to commit suicide. That was among the messages scrawled out after a car wash, according to the federal complaint relying on surveillance video.

According to published reports, a federal warrant says Swain’s motivation is the deaths of his father, uncle and grandfather, and his belief they were wrong. Threatening posts on Swain’s social media platform Facebook drew the attention, and interviews with him, by the Secret Service in January and April of 2025.

North Carolina is running up an infamous listing with threats against second-term Republican President Donald Trump.

Former FBI Director James Comey will be in a Greenville federal courtroom on Monday facing two felony counts of threats against Trump. In May 2025 he posted to social media seashells on the Outer Banks arranged to spell out 86 47 – a commonly interpreted reference for eliminating something (86) and the numerical count (47) of presidents.

In February, Austin Tucker Martin of Moore County was shot and killed by the Secret Service when he drove inside what should have been a secured perimeter at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida home. He had a shotgun and gas can with him; the president and wife Melania were about 1,000 miles north at the White House.

Seventeen months earlier, on Sept. 15, 2024, Trump was golfing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., when the Secret Service encountered Greensboro native Ryan Routh on the outskirts of the course. He was convicted of attempted assassination.