A Jupiter man is in jail after officials say he admitted to posting threats against President Donald Trump on his social media. The Jupiter Police Department announced the arrest of Glenn DeCicco on Friday after learning of several threats posted to DeCicco's Facebook page. According to the probable cause statement, then JPD was made aware of concerning posts seen on social media where DeCicco appeared to be threatening the president. One post references assassination, and another reads, "Winning strategy: buy QQQ, sell SQQQ today; shoot Trump tomorrow."The probable cause statement notes that the president's plans to be in Jupiter were announced the day after they learned of DeCicco's posts. The JPD contacted the United States Secret Service, which assigned an agent to aid in the investigation. The agent and several JPD officers went to DeCicco's house in Jupiter, where they spoke with him. According to the probable cause statement, DeCicco appeared agitated about politics and personal issues but admitted to posting the threats. When officials asked him why he would post "shoot Trump tomorrow," he reportedly said, "It was a thought that I had."The JPD reported DeCicco attempted to downplay the posts and described them as creative wordplay. Former FBI special agent weighs inTo better understand how threats against the president are investigated, WPBF 25 News spoke with Stuart Kaplan, a former FBI special agent turned attorney. Kaplan said before social media became what it is today, law enforcement relied on tips from confidential informants or other sources. "In this day and age, law enforcement is now utilizing proactive measures to get out in front of it. Instead of waiting for someone to actually be in the planning and preparation stage, we're actually trying now to identify those potential individuals as potential targets, opening up investigations," Kaplan said. He said the FBI often uses platforms like SOMEX to monitor social media for any potential threats. The software uses keywords and phrases to identify those potential threats. "They basically are out there trolling or scanning social media and trying to identify those potential threats. If they identify a potential threat, they're going to try to neutralize it as quickly as possible before it even gets off to that preparation or planning stage," he said. Despite those tactics, he said it's important to know that the FBI takes privacy very seriously."I want your viewers to understand that the FBI, as well as our government, is very sensitive to our right to be able to act and go about our lives freely without the restraints or the constraints of the United States government or Uncle Sam monitoring our daily lives," he said. However, he said safety comes first. "The government does have a right to go out and try to be proactive to see if, in fact, there is chatter out on public social media platforms that we can use as a way to initiate and zero in on those individuals who may be in the planning of preparation stage because we'd rather be able to neutralize those threats before, unfortunately, it's too late," Kaplan told WPBF. Kaplan said there's sometimes a blurred line between freedom of speech and a threat. "So what happens in that type of scenario, the FBI may or their counterparts may then dive into it a little deeper to see if there's other threads, meaning other digital threads that may seem to be a little bit more concerning, that may escalate this to not necessarily being just someone who's espousing their First Amendment right to say something that you and I may disagree with or may find trouble with," he explained. Their investigation could include a number of things, such as surveillance, both physical and digital. Kaplan said they consider a number of factors before making any concrete decisions."Does this person have a history of mental health issues in the past? Is this person a person who's been going out and hoarding ammunition and buying ammunition and has a cache of weapons? Does this individual have a prior criminal history?" Kaplan told WPBF.He said people have the right to state their opinions, but legal action comes into play when they make a threat or encourage others to act on their desires. "If I say, 'Well, I wish the person would have been shot and killed,' that is within my right to exercise my First Amendment right," he said. Kaplan used the July 2024 assassination attempt as an example to explain what would elevate that to a criminal investigation. "If I was to then try to encourage or incite someone to then try to do it again and try to escalate or to encourage someone, that's where, again, it may not be within that First Amendment, and there may be some domestic terrorism federal charges that could be levied against that individual," he said. He said someone encouraging another person to act on their own desires and agenda is a common occurrence that law enforcement focuses a lot of their efforts on."We see that more so with overseas type of propaganda, where with respect to incidents that have happened to try to incite or convince or to encourage people to go out and commit jihad or active shooting type of scenarios where the person may be in another country, but they're trying to incite or encourage someone here domestically," Kaplan said.WPBF read Kaplan the threats DeCicco is accused of making toward Trump to get his expertise on how law enforcement might approach the investigation. "If this lead landed on my desk, myself and another agent would go out and attempt to make contact with this individual and interview this individual. Through our investigative techniques, we would try to explore whether or not someone is just espousing his concerns or he's upset and he's frustrated, but he would never ever have the intent or willingness or purpose to then take that next step to do something against the president," he said. Kaplan said those decisions would be conveyed to an assistant U.S. attorney or through the Department of Justice to then make a prosecution decision as to whether this would be a criminal matter."That's where you have to make contact with this individual and, of course, peel back the layers of the onion and dive into this individual's history," he said. In DeCicco's case, the probable cause statement makes note of incidents where he's been hostile to law enforcement. WPBF 25 News learned from prior court records that DeCicco has also been accused of making threats toward his homeowners association and the members on the board. Kaplan said the legal ramifications of making such threats to a political candidate or the president of the U.S. are extremely serious."You are going to feel the full weight of the United States government coming down on you with respect to a potential penalty that could put you in federal jail up to 10 years," he said. Kaplan said the FBI has faced scrutiny in the past for not taking threats seriously, but he feels those faults have been corrected. "Unfortunately, the FBI, to some extent many years ago, was caught flat-footed and not necessarily doing enough to follow up. But I can assure you that the FBI now takes each and every lead and all of this information very, very seriously, doesn't sit on it and initiates immediate contact with that information," he added. DeCicco was booked in the Palm Beach County jail and has been charged with making written threats to kill.WPBF 25 News reached out to the Jupiter Police Department for an interview. It declined our request but offered the following statement from its public information officer:"Due to our strong partnerships with the community, the Jupiter Police Department is able to remain alert to social media postings that may have an impact on our local area. Between the community responsibly notifying the Police Department of concerning posts and our Officers and staff being vigilant when utilizing social media, we are able to address written threats to the public. Postings of a violent or threatening nature are taken seriously and if the department becomes aware of any type of written threat against a member of the public, whether through social media or any other format, an investigation is immediately initiated. When necessary, a coordinated response will be conducted with any applicable local, state, or federal agencies in an effort to investigate and apprehend any individual(s) responsible for threats of violence within our community."Top Headlines:Road rage incident leads to arrest in St. Lucie County