Trump flotilla organizer is to be charged with a felony ‘for sending a threatening text’

An ardent Trump supporter who has made a name for himself by organizing boat parades in honor of the president is facing a felony charge for sending a fellow member of a Florida country club a threatening text message following a political argument. 

But Carlos Gavidia says that he never threatened to kill anyone, and that he sent the expletive-filled text in the heat of the moment after enduring months of harassment – some of it racially charged – from his neighbors.

Gavidia’s attorney, Stuart Kaplan, told local media outlets that his client planned to surrender at the Palm Beach County Jail on Tuesday morning to be charged with written threats to kill or do bodily injury, which is a felony. 

As of 1pm, Gavidia’s name has not appeared on the jail’s list of inmates.

Gavidia, a former resident of the high-end Admiral’s Cove country club community in Jupiter, Florida, has gained notoriety by renaming his 42-foot boat ‘Trump’ in honor of President Donald Trump and hosting a series of splashy, star-spangled boat parades dubbed ‘Trumptillas.’ 

One of Gavidia’s early events held in May caught the attention of the president himself, who shared a video from the nautical display on Twitter and commented: ‘Thank you very much to our beautiful “boaters.” I will never let you down!’

Gavidia and his wife had recently met and took pictures with President Trump, and attended a boat parade in Montauk, New York, last month with Donald Trump Jr, his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle and a Trump impersonator. 

Last week, Gavidia shared photos on his Instagram page showing himself and his wife happily posing on the White House lawn ahead of Trump’s RNC nomination acceptance speech.  

Kaplan told WPBF Gavidia has faced an ‘onslaught of harassing behavior’ and taunting from his neighbors to the point where his client was driven out of the Jupiter community. 

According to an interview with WPBF, Gavidia’s neighbors turned on him last spring for failing to remove his Trump flag from his boat in violation of a community rule. 

Defiant, Gavidia wrapped his boat with a Trump banner and organized his first boat parade in honor of the commander-in-chief. 

That only made his neighbors angrier, prompting some of them to send him hate mail. 

‘America does not need showy, trashy, brown people like you,’ Gavidia, a native of Peru who was brought to the US as a young child, read from a handwritten note he said he had received in the mail. ‘So go back to your country, Mr. Brownie.’

Gavidia said things came to a head last week when he and wife Laura were at dinner at Marina Cafe in Admiral’s Cove on one of the final nights before their departure from Jupiter and saw a group of people who used to be their friends mocking them by making vomiting noises and laughing.

Laura Gavidia said she became upset, which angered her husband and led him to send a threatening text to one of the people who were poking fun at the couple.

The note stated in part: ‘You [expletive] with the wrong guy I’m coming for you…I’ve got nothing to lose but you have plenty like your life, you have no idea who I am…I play for keeps your (sic) [expletive] done.’

The recipient of the text went to the police, which then had a warrant issued for Gavidia’s arrest. 

Gavidia explained that he wrote the message in a ‘fit of anger’ – a decision he now regrets. He stressed that he never meant to harm anyone.  

‘I didn’t say I was going to kill him,’ Gavidia said. ‘Never. I said you mess with my life, I’ll mess with yours.’

Gavidia reportedly has offered to apologize to the recipient of the note, but the man rejected his overtures. If convicted as charged, Gavidia could face up to 15 years in prison. 

This is not the first time that the avid Trump supporter has been in trouble with the law: In the late 1990s he served six months in prison on a marijuana-trafficking charge in Virginia, reported Palm Beach Post.

Not long after his first Trump flotilla in May, Gavidia crashed his Porsche in his neighborhood and left the scene of the accident. He got off with a citation after his wife told police he suffered a medical episode. 

In an interview with the Palm Beach Post, Gavidia said his flip flops became lodged under the accelerator, causing the crash. 

On the eve of his anticipated arrest, Gavidia took to Facebook to post a lengthy screed, detailing what happened and railing against ‘bogus’ charges. 

‘Liberals can taunt, harass, curse and make life miserable for me and my family, but god forbid I yell back, stand up for myself and my family; and yes, our President,’ he wrote. 

In his written rant, Gavidia also took a swipe at Black Lives Matter protesters, calling them ‘radical Left thugs’ and accusing them of spitting and yelling threats at him and other RNC attendees outside the White House.   

‘I will continue my Patriotism and unwavering support for President Trump, continue the Nationwide TRUMP Boat MOVEMENT!!’ Gavidia pledged. ‘It’s our only way of doing Trump rallies peacefully, safely and they are highly effective demonstrating our unwavering support for the President.’ 

Gavidia’s post was accompanied by a photo of himself posing up with notorious Trump adviser Roger Stone, whose 40-month sentence for lying to federal investigators was commuted by the president in July. 

‘I feel his pain,’ Gavidia wrote of Stone.