The co-founder of Students for Trump, a supporters group formed ahead of the 2016 election, was arrested last week on domestic violence charges in North Carolina, court documents show.
Ryan Fournier, 27, was detained last Tuesday and accused of assaulting a woman, later identified as his girlfriend, by “grabbing her right arm and striking her in the forehead” with a handgun, according to an order issued by a magistrate in Johnston county.
Fournier – who still leads the Trump supporters’ group – also runs Radical Alert, which says it “exposes” radicals’ hate that has “taken over American college campuses”, according to its Twitter bio, and counts 1 million followers.
Ahead of the 2016 election, Fournier led a national effort to get out the vote for Donald Trump while still a student at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina.
He had co-founded the group via a Twitter account in 2015 before being asked by the Trump campaign to create a larger coalition, at which point he asked a friend, John Lambert, to help.
In 2021, Lambert was arrested and later sentenced to 13 months in prison for posing as a lawyer in a fraud scheme.
At one point, the group had more than 250 chapters and 5,000 volunteers nationwide, according to a count on a now-archived website.
“People are just so motivated. We’ve motivated a lot of students to get out there and be a part of this election, this campaign cycle, since it’s so historic,” Fournier told the Raleigh News & Observer two months before Trump’s election win.
He said he had spoken directly to Trump on “three or maybe four occasions”, describing him as a “great guy, very humble”.
Fournier was charged with domestic assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon. The unidentified victim suffered a minor injury, according to police. Fournier was released on a $2,500 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on 18 December.
