It was a case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that was nearly fatal.
A man who allegedly decided to rip down a sign supporting President Donald Trump outside a home in rural North Carolina, then apparently fired a handgun at the building, is facing charges that could put him in prison for almost 20 years, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
On the other hand, he’s lucky to still be alive.
“I would have hated to kill that kid,” resident Mark Thomas said in a video of the encounter captured on surveillance cameras.
According to the Daily Mail, a United Kingdom-based news outlet with a significant U.S. presence, Atlanta-area accountant Benjamin Michael Campbell, 38, is facing a Class C felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, as well as charges of discharging a firearm with intent to incite fear, and willful and wanton injury to personal property.
The Class C felony carries a punishment of 17 years in prison, the Daily Mail reported.
The charges stem from a Sept. 6 incident in which Campbell allegedly stopped outside the Thomas family property in Nantahala Gorge, in the mountains of western North Carolina, and ripped down a Trump banner.
Thomas, 62, who owns a rafting business in the tourist area, witnessed the vandalism and fired two warning shots in the air, the Daily Mail reported.
Video from the incident shows the vandal firing through the sunroof of his vehicle while passing and driving off.
Then, Thomas said, the driver returned to the scene and fired five or six more shots from a different angle.
Check out the YouTube video here. It’s almost 40 minutes long, but the personality that comes through alone makes it well worth watching:
According to the Daily Mail, it wasn’t clear what Campbell was doing in the Tar Heel State, about 160 miles northeast of Atlanta.
It also wasn’t clear how authorities tracked him down, given the license plate on his vehicle — at least on the video Thomas published — was obscured.
But what was clear was that Thomas is the kind of Trump supporter who could give nightmares to the faculty lounge liberals who turn out for events like the “No Kings” protests over the weekend.
NEW: 38-year-old accountant Benjamin Michael Campbell arrested after allegedly opening fire on a MAGA supporter over a Trump sign, according to the Daily Mail.
Campbell is accused firing shots at 62-year-old Mark Thomas in North Carolina.
According to Thomas, Campbell was… pic.twitter.com/G2q1nqPpX0
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 20, 2025
Narrating a video of the destruction of the Trump banner, Thomas’ voice dripped with almost amused contempt for the “little antifa thug” involved.
Almost amused.
Given that the gunshots fired from the vandal’s vehicle had actually caused physical damage to Thomas’ home, and could well have wounded or killed either Thomas or his girlfriend, who was inside the home, it was a deadly serious business.
“He fired five to six rounds as he was heading back down the driveway to the highway that passes in front of my place,” Thomas said, according to the Daily Mail.
“I found one bullet hole in my refrigerator, which is on my porch.”
In the video of the incident, Thomas mused about how he fired his own weapon into the air, while his adversary apparently had more serious damage in mind.
“Don’t come back. That’s all I can tell you,” Thomas said, addressing his then unidentified attacker. “Don’t come back shooting a gun, because I let you come one time …
“Now I know you were actually shooting at me … I don’t know how well you shoot, but I can tell you right now, I shoot extremely well.”
As to the banner that sparked the whole incident, the Daily Mail reported that it was actually owned by Thomas’ 87-year-old mother. And according to Fox News, it was one of several Trump banners Thomas’ mother has on the property.
(That’s a detail that will surprise exactly nobody who watches the video. Of course, a guy like this has a mother who owns Trump banners. It’s part of the beauty of the Make America Great Again movement.)
“She got pretty upset that I was out there defending her flag,” he told the Daily Mail. “That’s the way she felt.”
But one destroyed banner is only going to lead to another.
“We’re not the kind of people that are going to be intimidated,” Thomas told the Daily Mail. “We’re going to have our signs up if we want them.”
That’s something the next “antifa thug” who finds himself moved to attack a Trump banner in Nantahala Gorge, North Carolina — or anywhere else where Trump supporters have decided to make their presence known — might want to keep in mind.
Political violence is unnecessary in a country literally designed for the peaceful settlement of political questions. In fact, it’s an obscenity.
But self-defense is a different story entirely.
There are some exceptions, but political violence in the United States these days is almost entirely a one-way street, heading from the left to the right.
Should America brace for an escalation in political violence?
The assassination of conservative organizer and activist Charlie Kirk is the most extreme example, but the day-to-day outrages of anti-ICE attackers in Chicago, antifa thugs in Oregon, and general domestic terrorism in the nation as a whole tend to be the work of “progressives” who think the arc of history bends, and is bending in their favor.
That doesn’t mean the other side is obligated to take it.
Shooting live ammunition from a moving vehicle at a stranger’s home isn’t just attempted murder. It’s an invitation for retaliation. And given Trump’s support for gun rights, that Trump-supporting homeowner is almost certain to be more familiar with the effective use of firearms than the basic urban leftist just passing through.
The next one might not be as lucky.
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