A gay Christian podcaster was arrested this week and charged with threatening to kill President Donald Trump.
Federal agents took 40-year-old Benjamin Azariah Southworth into custody Thursday morning at his home in Los Angeles’ Westlake neighborhood, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
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The former host of Christian reality show The Remix and the GLAAD Media Award nominated podcast Yass, Jesus, is charged with threatening the president’s life and with cyberstalking one of the president’s personal lawyers and his family.
Southworth reportedly shouted “Donald Trump is a pedophile!” and “The country has fallen!” as he was led away in handcuffs by FBI agents Thursday morning, according to the New York Post.
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A three-count federal grand jury indictment accuses Southworth of using his YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok accounts and his website, Holy Menace, “to publicly express his hatred toward President Trump and the President’s supporters” between January and May of this year.
“Southworth used these online platforms to publicly engage in and encourage the abuse and harassment of the president and to threaten violence against the president,” the release stated.
Court documents allege that Southworth posted multiple videos on YouTube and Instagram portraying fictional acts of violence against the president, the Post reports. He also allegedly spoke about killing “any Trump official” if he encountered them in person in a private text exchange.
In an April 7 Instagram video, he allegedly addressed concerns that he would be arrested for being “vocal in calling for the execution of Donald Trump.”
“This government is illegitimate and out of control. It’s time for course correction. Kill Donald Trump,” Southworth allegedly said in the same video.
He is also alleged to have posted the home address and photo of one of the President’s personal lawyers on TikTok earlier this year, encouraging followers to “visit Trump’s personal lawyer,” according to the Post.
He also allegedly harassed the lawyer’s wife and son both online and over the phone between January and May, and in February posted their personal phone numbers on Instagram, encouraging followers to “call one of these numbers and let these people know they are pieces of s**t.”
After hosting The Remix in the early 2000s, Southworth came out in 2008, later writing about the experience in an essay for The Advocate. In one of the videos cited in the court documents, Southworth described himself as “a survivor of conversion therapy for five years,” the Post reported.
In 2020, he and co-host Daniel Franzese, of Mean Girls and Looking fame, launched Yass, Jesus!, which is described as “an interfaith and sexuality affirming comedy podcast that believes you don’t have to pick between gay and God.” In 2023, the show was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award. Its most recent episode was posted in late December 2024.
Southworth’s website describes him as an L.A.-based “artivist” who “uses his platform to challenge Christian nationalism, anti‑LGBTQIA+ bigotry, and Zionism.” Among the Southworth designed merch on the site is a $5 sticker depicting a large-eyed rodent along with the words “Kill Trump.”
In January 2025, Southworth reportedly outed Christian singer Michael Tait in a since-deleted TikTok post. Tait would later admit to sexually abusing several young men in their twenties.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Thursday release, Southworth has been charged with one count of threatening the President, one count of cyberstalking, and one count of harassing telephone calls in interstate communications and faces up to 12 years in prison.
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