Authorities in the Dominican Republic had the last laugh after the arrest of an influencer who posted an assassination threat against President Luis Abinader on TikTok.
Starlin Silvestre, known as ‘Starlin HD’, told police he was simply looking to enjoy the moment after former US President Donald Trump was shot at a campaign event on Saturday.
In a video, which has been viewed more than 725 thousand times, the 23-year-old can be seen sitting on his bed and saying that Abinader could suffer the same fate as the Republican candidate.
“Abinader, you saw what happened to Donald Trump, right?” he said in Spanish. “We’re going to blow your mind, do you hear me?”
Silvestre then seems to refer to the million-dollar loans that the Abinader government has taken out to cover public works: “A brick falls in the country and you ask for 200 million. You’ve got us tired, Abinader, you bastard.”
Dominican influencer Starlin Silvestre went viral for all the wrong reasons on Saturday after posting a TikTok video threatening to assassinate President Luis Abinader. The 23-year-old turned himself in on Sunday at a police station in the southern city of San Cristobal.
Starlin Silvestre told a CDN television reporter that he was just an “influencer” and “comedian” who wanted to be “cool” by posting a TikTok video threatening to assassinate Dominican President Luis Abinader. He said he came up with the idea after seeing viral photos and videos of the attempted assassination of former US President Luis Abinader.
But he struck a different tune as he was escorted through a police station in Haina, a town in the southern province of San Cristobal, on Sunday and toned down his rhetoric as he asked President Abinader for forgiveness.
“I’m an influencer, you know,” Silvestre told a journalist from the CDN television channel. “Because I was interested in current events, I created content. I’m very sorry. I apologize to Mr. President.”
Silvestre said that after learning of the failed assassination attempt on the Republican presidential candidate, he saw photos and videos circulating on social media and decided to do his part.
“I went on TikTok and saw that all of this had gone viral,” she said. “I made a video, but not with the intention of causing harm.”
Silvestre understood the seriousness of his actions.
“Content creators always want to be cool,” he said. “What I did was a mistake. What I am is an influencer, a comedian.”
Vice President of the Dominican Republic, Raquel Peña (left), President Luis Abinader (center) and First Lady, Raquel Arbaje
Starling Silvestre told a reporter that “content creators always want to be cool. What I did was a mistake. What I am is an influencer, a comedian,” after turning himself in at a police station in Haina, Dominican Republic, on Sunday, a day after he posted a TikTok video threatening President Luis Abinader. He said he was inspired by the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Silvestre remained in custody on Monday and had not yet been charged.
President Abinader, who has received five death threats since 2021, did not comment on the incident.
But Vice President Raquel Peña issued a stern warning to content creators, vowing that Silvestre will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as she spoke to a crowd of reporters Monday after a meeting with business leaders from the Cibao region.
“We don’t have that culture of aggression. So let’s not invent, let’s not get too creative because we’re not like that,” Peña said. “I mean, for me that was an isolated case.”
A series of images and videos obtained by DailyMail.com showed how close Thomas Matthew Crooks came to killing Trump at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The 20-year-old gunman stood on the roof of an industrial manufacturing building, about 150 metres (500 feet) from the stage where Trump was speaking to supporters, before opening fire with his father’s R-15 rifle.
Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old father of two and volunteer fire chief, has been named as the audience member who died trying to shield his family from gunfire.
Two other spectators who were hit by the impact, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, were in stable condition Sunday.