A 37-year-old man self-immolated outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump was being tried.
He was identified as Max Azzarello of Florida.
In distributed pamphlets and online writings, Azzarello described his act as a protest to expose what he alleged was a global fascist coup orchestrated by governments and corporations.
“My name is Max Azzarello, and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan,” he wrote.
“This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery: We are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup.”
Specifically, he claimed to have uncovered evidence that major cryptocurrency and financial entities like Google, Tesla and Facebook were perpetrating a “planetary multi-trillion dollar Ponzi scheme” benefiting elites at the public’s expense.
“Stanford’s StartX.com and Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Program for Evolutionary Dynamics’…are filled with fraudulent companies that always collapse,” Azzarello wrote.
Azzarello also implicated cultural influences and both political parties in the alleged deception.
Azzarello wrote, “To understand this story is to see right through the con, to become immune to the endless sea of criminal propaganda, and to feel the great joy and power that comes with freedom. I no longer have my original research files from the crypto rabbit hole. If you want to see them, you’ll have to get my laptop back from the government. Ask them how they got it – it’s a very fun story.”
He added, “I hope you know how powerful you are. I wish you a hell of a lot more than luck.”
His family was unaware of his plans.
Mental health experts are examining his actions through a lens of psychological distress.
As the Trump trial continues, Azzarello’s dramatic protest raises questions around political activism, mental health, and perceptions of public deception.
