BREAKING: Antifascist who set himself on fire outside Trump court dies from injuries

Max Azzarello died late on Friday night at about 10:30 pm, only hours after he set himself on fire in the protest area near the courthouse in lower Manhattan where President Donald Trump has been facing trial.

Azzarello stood in the protest area with a sign that read "Trump is with Biden and they're about to fascist coup us." Prior to setting himself ablaze, he posted a video to Instagram in which he said "Start a fucking revolution you've got nothing to lose." He was singing "start a f*cking revolution" as he went about his deadly task.

The 37-year-old Florida man had pamphlets which surrounded him as he burned. The pages included a link to a Substack newsletter where more of his writings could be found. He left behind a manifesto where he criticized liberals, conservatives, media, and the collapse of the American Dream.

In it, he called out what he said is a "sharp rise in apocalyptic messaging: Climate change will kill us all; COVID will kill us all; vaccines will kill us all; AI will kill us all – no matter the bubbles we ascribe to, we’re bombarded with existential crises with no solutions. We’ve seen a surge in apocalyptic film, literature, and video games that tell us there is no way out of our poor circumstances but total societal breakdown. Zombies tell us that the public is our enemy."

He poured fuel on himself and set himself ablaze as reporters looked on. Laura Coates of CNN gave a real-time account of the self-immolation, recounting for viewers what she saw and smelled as Azzarello was torched by the flames.

Paramedics tended to the man, and he was still breathing and moving his arms as he was lifted from the ground where he fell to a guerney and taken away. He was the color of ash. Azzarello was taken to a local hospital where he was treated at the burn unit but his injuries proved too severe.

A truck parked near the scene reportedly belonging to Azzarello was covered with writing that said "Trump is with Hillary they're about to fascist coup us."

Azzarello had been the subject of three criminal complaints in Florida in August 2023 and was unemployed at the time of those complaints. These included an incident where he stropped his clothes off outside a restaurant where he had just eaten and yelled at patrons.