Woman arrested for threatening to shoot Trump at Florida rally

A 21-year-old woman who posted on social media that she was planning to shoot US President Donald Trump at his rally in Florida’s Daytona Beach has been arrested, authorities said.

Trump visited Daytona on Friday to help drum up the vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds.

But the night before, investigators said Allison Albro shared an online post showing a photo of herself captioned, “Going to the Trump rally in my city tmr so I can shoot him with my glock! Wish me luck guys!!”

Her post got the attention of members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Secret Service, who contacted the Volusia sheriff’s office to tell them of the written threat, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Volusia county sheriff Mike Chitwood announced Albro’s arrest on Friday and shared a copy of her post on the department’s social media page to warn others that his investigators would not “tolerate threats to assassinate the president”.

Records show she was charged with written threat to kill and unlawful use of a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony. Albro did not immediately return a request for comment on Saturday.

In the first 24 hours, Chitwood’s post was shared roughly 20,000 times.

When law enforcement went to Albro’s Daytona home, she was reportedly crying and said she knew why they were there, detectives said. She added that her mother had called her about her post and she took it down.

“Albro advised it was obviously a joke; she doesn’t own a Glock and doesn’t like guns,” according to the affidavit. “She further advised she does not like President Trump, but she was not going to shoot anyone.”

Law enforcement searched the home and did not find any guns or weapons, according to the sheriff’s office.

“I would strongly advise anyone else thinking of posting a ‘joke’ along these lines to think twice,” Chitwood said.

The sheriff has a history of taking online threats seriously. He made headlines in 2024 when he promised to – and did – perp-walk students who threatened, even jokingly, to commit violence at school after the sheriff’s office had to investigate an onslaught of false threats.

Prosecutors filed a motion to keep Albro in jail pending trial. She remains in Volusia county jail without bond until her next hearing on Monday.