Southern Arizona man arrested for alleged death threats against Donald Trump as candidate visited border

COCHISE COUNTY, AZ (AZFamily) — Authorities have arrested a southern Arizona man who allegedly made threats on social media to kill former President Donald Trump.

The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office says 66-year-old Ronald Lee Syvrud from Benson was taken into custody without incident Thursday afternoon — on the same day the former president was in Arizona and toured the southern border.

The sheriff’s office said Syvrud was arrested around 2:30 p.m. during a traffic stop.

“As part of the operations plan in place for the visit of candidate Donald Trump on today’s date, locating this subject was a priority,” the agency said in a statement.

An online search failed to turn up any social media accounts in Syvrud’s name or any contact information for him. His name did not immediately appear on the list of inmates at the county jail, and there was no word yet on whether he had a court date or an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

According to the sheriff’s office, Syvrud was wanted on several outstanding warrants. He had warrants out of Wisconsin for DUI and failure to appear for DUI and out of Graham County for hit and run and felony failure to register as a sex offender. The sheriff’s office also said he failed to register as a sex offender in Coconino County.

Trump was in Cochise County on Thursday. He visited the same stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in Sierra Vista that his vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, toured three weeks ago.

The former president survived an assassination attempt July 13. This Wednesday, at his first outdoor rally since the attempt, he spoke from behind bulletproof glass in North Carolina at an event focused on national security.

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