Liberal Podcaster Arrested Over Trump Threats

Federal agents arrested 40-year-old Los Angeles podcaster Benjamin Azariah Southworth at his Westlake apartment on the morning of September 3 after a grand jury charged him with threatening the president, cyberstalking, and making harassing interstate phone calls.

Southworth once appeared on TBN’s Christian program “The Remix.” In recent years he co-hosted the comedy podcast “Yass, Jesus!” and ran holymenace.com, where prosecutors say he sold “kill trump” stickers and billed himself as an “artivist.”

The indictment covers activity from January through May 2026 across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and his website. Prosecutors say he used those platforms to express hatred toward President Donald Trump and Trump’s supporters and to encourage harassment.

Private texts from January, according to court papers, included: “If I encounter any Trump official in-person, I’m seriously afraid I will end up in Jail,” and “But if I could Kill him, I wouldn’t waste the opportunity.” In the same exchange he wrote, “I want to funnel this rage into street art. That’s my plan. But GOD I want that motherf***er and his minions dead.”

Around that same month he posted Trump attorney Jay Sekulow’s home address on TikTok with photos of the house and the caption “No peace for traitors.” From January to May he left abusive messages and voicemails for Sekulow’s son and placed interstate calls to Sekulow’s wife. Prosecutors say he called the family at least 13 times.

One voicemail allegedly warned, “There’s going to come a day when justice comes to your door.” In February he posted personal phone numbers for Sekulow’s son and relatives with the line, “Do you want to spice up your love life this Valentine’s Day? Then call one of these numbers and let these people know they are pieces of sh**.”

After a March 31 Supreme Court ruling on conversion-therapy restrictions, Southworth posted a video on the Holy Menace Instagram account. “Since the [United States] Supreme Court has ruled today that psychological, spiritual, emotional and physical torture known as gay conversion therapy is free speech, I want to practice my free speech as a survivor of conversion therapy for five years,” he said. “Kill Donald Trump. Kill that motherf***ing pedophile in the White House. Kill that traitor of the United States Constitution. That’s all.”

On April 7 he posted another video stating, “I have been vocal in calling for the execution of Donald Trump” and “This government is illegitimate and out of control. It’s time for course correction. Kill Donald Trump.” A separate clip depicted him “teleporting” into the White House and raising a knife behind Trump.

Prosecutors also say he later called some of the language “just rhetoric,” then recorded another video for use if he were arrested that repeated the same execution line. As agents led him out, the New York Post reported he shouted, “Donald Trump is a pedophile! The country has fallen!”

Attorney General Todd Blanche said threats against the president would be met with “the full force of the law,” adding that people who make them online “will not be allowed to hide behind their screens.” FBI Director Kash Patel called the threats “as vile as they are criminal.” Southworth faces up to 12 years if convicted on all counts.