Derek Lopez charged with Trump threat after FBI warning and university firing
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This story is part of Fox News Digital’s Campus Radicals investigative series. Get the full series here.
The man accused of threatening to kill President Donald Trump after being fired from his job as a college teaching assistant for flipping a Turning Point USA desk on campus ignored warnings from federal law enforcement about his violent social media posts, the FBI says.
On Oct. 9, eight days before he was arrested for disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property after a viral video showed him flipping a Turning Point USA table on the Illinois State University campus, 27-year-old Derek Lopez was interviewed by federal agents over his online posts.
“During the interview, agents advised Lopez multiple times about the differences between speech protected by the First Amendment and making threatening communications online and what people might perceive as threats,” the affidavit says.
Derek Lopez was fired from his job as a teaching assistant at Illinois State University after turning the Turning Point USA desk on campus. (Credit: X/@FrontlinesTPUSA)
The university fired Lopez from her position as a teaching assistant on October 20.
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The affidavit details disturbing social media posts that followed the Oct. 9 interview.
A video posted on Instagram on October 26 under the account @Derek200p, which the FBI says belongs to Lopez, shows an unidentified male walking down the street with his gun raised. The unknown male then points the gun and an image of Trump appears, wearing a crown with a red crosshair on his forehead. This post was still live on his Instagram page at the time of this writing.
“I’m going to kill Donald Trump, idgaf,” Lopez said in an Oct. 27 post from the account @Derek200pz, according to the FBI. This post is also still live on Lopez’s account.
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FBI Director Kash Patel with FBI agents outside the Park Police Station, the command center of the Trump administration’s new crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital, on Aug. 11 in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy: FBI, provided exclusively to Fox News Digital)
Lopez also commented on a post that appeared to commemorate Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on the Utah Valley University campus on September 10, claiming that he killed Kirk.
“Cry more,” the comment read. “Hundreds of frail little children die every day in Palestine [sic] be. Charlie Kirk spoke on their behalf, not to end their suffering. This was his free speech. My free speech is this: I killed Derek S Lopez. I killed Charlie Kirk.”
He also made an Instagram post with an image that read, “I’m punching ICE (in the face),” according to the affidavit.
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The affidavit also included a summary of an interview with Lopez conducted by Illinois State University police on Oct. 15.
Illinois State University Police arrested Lopez following the table knocking incident. (Illinois State University Police)
In that interview, Lopez opined about “Nazis” and “fascists” in the White House.
“He posted on social media about how he wanted to kill Nazis. He said he felt Nazism and Fascism were on the rise,” according to the affidavit. “He stated that he didn’t want to kill people, but he expressed his honest opinion that some powerful people should be killed.”
“Now with the Nazis and Fascists [sic] “He says it felt bad to be in the White House saying, ‘I hope these people get killed by someone,'” the affidavit says. “He says he didn’t make it very clear when he made these posts that he didn’t mean to kill them himself, but if it ‘scares’ people about being less Nazi or Fascist, then that’s fine.”
Lopez’s arrest should serve as a warning, Patel told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel speaks at the swearing-in ceremony on February 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The threats this individual allegedly sent against President Trump are disgusting and have no place in American society,” he told Fox News Digital. “Let this be a message to anyone considering a threat of violence against any American, not just public officials, that this FBI will find you and bring you to justice. I want to thank our local partners, the El Paso Police Department in Illinois, and the USSS for assisting us with this case.”
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Lopez’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Illinois State University did not respond to a request for comment.
