A Duval County associate medical examiner earning more than $300,000 a year in public salary was pulled from duty Tuesday after posting on X that he was "looking forward to the big beautiful obituary", a phrase widely interpreted as wishing for the death of President Trump.
Dr. Bob Pfalzgraf made the post shortly after midnight Monday. By the next day, the conservative account Libs of TikTok had shared it. By Tuesday, the city had yanked him from the job and opened an investigation.
A city spokesperson confirmed the action in a statement to the New York Post:
"Associated Medical Examiner Bob Pfalzgraf has been placed on administrative leave while we investigate the circumstances around the social media post."
Pfalzgraf, for his part, told Jacksonville radio station WOKV that he would "wait to see what the city has to say" before commenting further. He also made his X account private.
The medical examiner is reportedly the city's second-highest earner, pulling in $306,653. That figure comes from taxpayers, the same taxpayers whose elected president Pfalzgraf appeared to be fantasizing about burying.
He earned his medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1984 and has been with the Duval County Medical Examiner's Office since 2020. Florida Department of Health records show he is currently licensed to practice medicine in Florida, Ohio, and New Mexico, with his license set to expire in January 2027.
The speed of the city's response is notable. Pfalzgraf posted late Sunday night. Libs of TikTok amplified it the following day. By Tuesday he was off the job. Public officials who say reckless things about the president of the United States tend to find out quickly that the internet has a long memory and a short fuse.
The incident fits a broader pattern of public figures and institutions directing open hostility at the sitting president, hostility that, when it crosses certain lines, carries real consequences. Democrats have demanded Trump's removal on various pretexts, and the rhetoric from the left's loudest voices has grown more extreme with each passing month.
The social media post is not the first time Pfalzgraf's conduct has drawn scrutiny. An arrest report obtained by the Daily Mail showed he was arrested in May 2021 for allegedly driving under the influence in Fleming Island, Florida.
During that incident, the arrest report stated, Pfalzgraf threatened to "kill" another driver and demanded, "You know who I am?!" He eventually pleaded no contest and received 12 months of probation, court records show.
A DUI arrest, threats against a fellow motorist, and now a social media post that reads as wishing for the president's death. That is quite a record for a public servant whose professional duty is to determine how other people died, not to publicly root for it.
The broader left has spent years normalizing the idea that opposing Trump justifies almost any behavior. Some Democratic lawmakers have openly pledged impeachment the moment they reclaim a House majority, treating the constitutional process as a foregone conclusion rather than a serious remedy.
Administrative leave is a start, not a conclusion. The city has said it is investigating "the circumstances around the social media post," but it has not disclosed what disciplinary options are on the table or what standard of conduct applies to associate medical examiners.
Open questions remain. Will Pfalzgraf face termination? Will the investigation examine whether his judgment, the very thing a medical examiner is paid for, has been compromised? And will his medical licensure in three states face any review?
The city's silence beyond its initial statement leaves taxpayers guessing. Meanwhile, Pfalzgraf continues to draw his salary while sitting at home.
Public employees enjoy broad First Amendment protections, but courts have long recognized that speech touching on an official's fitness for duty, particularly speech that suggests reckless judgment, can justify employment action. A medical examiner who publicly cheers the prospect of a sitting president's death raises fair questions about temperament and professionalism.
This is not an isolated cultural moment. Media figures have called Trump an illegitimate president and urged boycotts of his official addresses, creating a permission structure in which government employees apparently feel comfortable posting wishes for his demise on a public platform.
Pfalzgraf's post was four words and a phrase: "looking forward to the big beautiful obituary." He did not name Trump explicitly, but the language, echoing the president's well-known rhetorical style, left little room for ambiguity. The city clearly read it the same way, given how fast it acted.
Making the account private after the post went viral did nothing to contain the damage. Screenshots travel faster than regret.
The track record of prominent Trump antagonists suggests that the loudest voices often carry the heaviest baggage. Michael Avenatti, once the left's favorite Trump critic, ended up in a halfway house after a string of criminal convictions. The pattern is not that every critic is a criminal, it is that the most reckless ones tend to reveal, over time, that their judgment problems extend well beyond politics.
Pfalzgraf's DUI arrest, his threats against another driver, and now his social media conduct paint a picture of a man whose impulse control has failed him more than once, all while holding a position of public trust and collecting a six-figure public salary.
The city of Jacksonville owes its residents a transparent accounting of what happens next. Political opponents have tried every lever available to undermine this president, but a government employee publicly wishing for his death is a line that even the most permissive workplace standards should not tolerate.
Taxpayers deserve public servants who can keep their political fantasies off the internet, and who save their professional expertise for the dead, not for wishing people into that category.
