A 24-year-old Clearwater man sits in federal custody after prosecutors say he mapped rooftops near a Trump speech site and posted vows to shoot the president ahead of a Wichita rally.
Jaden J. Read was charged Saturday with making threats against the president and arrested the same day, two days before President Donald Trump’s scheduled Monday visit to Wichita, Fox News reported.
Authorities took him into federal custody in Clearwater. He is set to remain there pending a detention hearing. Trump still spoke at the Kansas rally as planned.
The case began with a tip, not a scene at the venue. On Oct. 15, Crime Stoppers alerted investigators to comments under a KAKE News Facebook article about the president’s trip.
Prosecutors later tied additional alleged threats to a separate KWCH 12 News Facebook post about the same visit. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas moved quickly once the posts surfaced.
Federal prosecutors say Read wrote a string of comments that crossed from political anger into direct threats. One alleged post read: “Let’s shoot Trump honestly, where’s our shooter? I’m tired of living this money life.”
A minute later, prosecutors say, he followed with another comment claiming he had ammunition and threatening to kill the president. Under the KWCH article he allegedly wrote: “Can we shoot him in Kansas please I will myself.”
A further comment attributed to him stated: “IK where your speech will be. Already mapped out roofs around. Finna get kirked since yall couldn’t help him.” The office presented those words as evidence he had scouted elevated positions near the speech site.
No injuries occurred. No weapon recovery is described in the charging account released so far. The government charged him solely on the alleged threats themselves.
Threat cases against Trump have drawn heightened federal attention in recent months, including Secret Service leave decisions tied to Iranian threats against the president and his family.
U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser issued a statement Monday, the day of the scheduled Wichita visit. He left little room for confusion about the office’s stance.
Kriegshauser said:
"Political violence and threats of political violence will not be tolerated."
He added a second point aimed at anyone testing the edge of protected speech:
"The first Amendment allows for robust disagreement but there are constraints. I caution people to stay within the bounds of constitutionally protected speech."
That framing matters. Disagreeing with a president is legal. Mapping roofs and announcing an intent to shoot him is not. The Kansas U.S. Attorney’s Office treated the alleged posts as the latter.
Readers following assassination-style risks will recognize the pattern from another recent case in which a Kansas man faced charges after rooftop mapping near a Trump rally.
The timeline is tight. Investigation opened Oct. 15. Charging and arrest followed on Saturday. Trump’s Wichita stop was set for the following Monday. By the time the president took the stage, Read was already in custody.
Prosecutors have not released a full charging document text, case number, or the precise statute citation in the public summary. They have also not detailed whether any physical reconnaissance beyond the online claims was confirmed. Those questions remain open for the detention hearing and later proceedings.
What is on the record is straightforward: a local tip, Facebook comments under two Kansas news posts, an arrest in Clearwater, and a federal hold. The president completed the rally without interruption from this defendant.
Broader security pressure around Trump has included foreign angles as well, from partnerships aimed at countering Iran to domestic legal fights that keep his orbit under constant scrutiny.
In contested matters the administration has also moved against what it views as biased judges, including efforts to remove a Biden-appointed judge from a D.C. golf course case.
None of those tracks alter the core Kansas facts. A 24-year-old from Clearwater allegedly announced he knew the speech location, had mapped roofs, and wanted a shooter in the state. Prosecutors answered with a federal charge and an arrest before the event.
Political disagreement belongs in the open. Calling for a rooftop shot at a president does not. Kansas federal prosecutors drew that line in time for the Wichita rally, and voters who expect basic order should want it held firm.
