A Clearwater, Kansas, man is charged with threatening to shoot President Trump after allegedly posting that he had "mapped out roofs" near the president's Wichita-area speech.

The rooftop line is what makes this one land differently. Since Butler, nobody in law enforcement treats a comment about mapping rooftops near a Trump speech as idle talk. But a threats charge turns on whether the words were a real threat, not just ugly speech, and the U.S. attorney said as much himself when he warned people to stay inside protected speech. Prosecutors will now have to show a court that these comments crossed that line.

Jaden J. Read, 24, of Clearwater, Kan., is charged in federal court with making threats against President Donald Trump, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Kansas announced Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint on Saturday, Oct. 17, and authorities arrested Read in Clearwater that day, the office said. The arrest came two days before Trump's scheduled Monday visit to the Wichita area, Fox News reported. KWCH 12 News reported the visit was an event at Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City, and KSHB 41 reported it was a rally in support of Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.

The investigation began Oct. 15, when a Crime Stoppers tip led authorities to comments posted under a KAKE News Facebook article about the president's upcoming visit, according to the U.S. attorney's office. "Let's shoot Trump honestly, where's our shooter? I'm tired of living this money life," Read allegedly wrote, the office said. Prosecutors said he immediately followed with a second comment on the same post claiming he had just gotten rifle rounds and saying he was going to kill the president, according to the office and the Daily Mail.

Investigators then found two more comments Read allegedly posted in response to a separate KWCH 12 News article about the visit, prosecutors said. "Can we shoot him in Kansas please I will myself," one read, according to the U.S. attorney's office. A minute later, prosecutors said, Read posted: "IK where your speech will be. Already mapped out roofs around. Finna get kirked since yall couldn't help him." The Daily Mail noted that the rooftop remark echoes the July 13, 2024, attempt on Trump's life in Butler, Pa., where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired from a building near the rally.

"Political violence and threats of political violence will not be tolerated," U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser said in a statement. "The First Amendment allows for robust disagreement but there are constraints. I caution people to stay within the bounds of constitutionally protected speech." The Secret Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Wichita Police Department investigated the case, the office said. The Daily Mail reported that the charge carries a possible sentence of up to five years in prison.

Read will remain in federal custody until a detention hearing, the U.S. attorney's office said. A criminal complaint is an accusation, not a finding of guilt, and none of the alleged comments has been tested in court. The reports did not name an attorney for Read. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.