Black students face federal charges for social media posts about Trump as his own threatening remarks draw scrutiny
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Three University of South Alabama students were arrested and charged with making threats on social media towards President Trump.
As President Donald Trump faces backlash for comments he made, essentially inviting Iran to attack California cities, three Black college students in Alabama are facing legal proceedings for comments they made about the president on social media.
Ahead of Trump’s visit to Alabama on October 2, the FBI conducted a social media search for posts it deemed threats to the president or to the rally scheduled to take place at the Mitchell Center. During that search, authorities flagged posts from three University of South Alabama students, which ultimately led to their arrest.
Cameron Lewis, Kayla Smith and Amare Woods have been charged with making threats on social media towards Trump.
According to the FBI, Woods, an 18-year-old aerospace engineering student with no criminal history, wrote “He gotta die bro,” in the comments of a post about the president’s visit to Alabama.
Smith, an education major, is facing charges for commenting, “We only got one chance, let’s take it,” with an image of someone mimicking holding a firearm under a TikTok video about the visit.
And Lewis, a biology major, resident assistant for the University of South Alabama, and a pharmacy technician, is being accused of sharing two posts on X that reportedly suggested the University of South Alabama would be remembered in the same way as Utah Valley University, where Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September 2025.
“There’s going to be some genuine question as to whether or not this was a comment versus a threat,” Woods’ attorney Jason Darley told Fox 10.
“They get wrapped up in all this social media stuff, and the next thing you know, he’s having the FBI literally calling him. When you’re a student at the school where the president is coming to visit, the timing was horrible. It’s a very sad situation,” he added in a separate statement to WKRG.
Lewis, Smith and Woods were arrested and ultimately released on probation after appearing in front of a judge. As the case heads to a federal grand jury, Darley hopes for a favorable result. The student’s arrest has sparked mixed reactions on social media.
“Didn’t the president just threaten an entire city? 🤔” One user commented on Instagram.
Another user on TikTok noted: “I see these ‘threats’ on TikTok almost every day…”
Updates about the University of South Alabama students’ arrest came after Trump made controversial comments about Iran potentially attacking Los Angeles and San Diego during a rally in Nebraska.
“They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. It’ll be over very soon,” Trump said of the war.
While White House Communications Director Stephen Cheung claimed the President was saying these cities would have been threatened if he hadn’t started the war with Iran, political leaders like Karen Bass, Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom condemned Trump’s comments, calling them dangerous.
“Californians’ lives are not expendable in Donald Trump’s unhinged, reckless war in Iran,” Harris said in a social media post.
“The President of the United States suggested that a foreign government attack Los Angeles. His statements against our city are dangerous and could potentially compromise our safety,” Bass wrote on X. “The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives.”
For many social media users, the two stories are impossible to separate. As the president’s comments draw criticism, Lewis, Smith, and Woods await a federal grand jury over theirs. Many see that contrast as one more example of selective accountability.