President Donald Trump attends the 157th National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, May 26, 2025, in Arlington, Virginia (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).
A Michigan man, aged 35, has been sentenced to over a year in prison for making repeated threats to kill former President Donald Trump and harm his family through explicit social media posts. This decision was made by U.S. District Judge Jane M. Beckering on Monday, as indicated by court documents from Law&Crime.
The judge sentenced Richard James Spring to 18 months in a federal correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening to kill and injure the President of the United States. In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors from the Justice Department in Michigan’s Western District agreed to drop an extra charge of threatening the president, along with two counts of making interstate threatening communications.
Spring’s plea deal also includes mandatory participation in mental health, anger management, and substance abuse counseling.
Prosecutors, in their court filings, revealed that Spring’s threats against Trump and his family began with a TikTok post on January 22. According to a sentencing memo filed last month, Spring declared, “I promise I will make SURE he is assassinated before his first f—ing year.”
Just three days after his initial threat, prosecutors noted that Spring issued further threats in response to a comment made by Barron Trump, the president’s son.
Three days later, they said Spring responded to a comment posted by the president”s son, Barron Trump, with another series of threats, writing:
- your dad is going to be in the ground soon. Promise.
- i’ll put a bullet in trump’s brain. youre going to watch your god DIE.
- ill make sure Trump gets his brain blown out.
- ill kill Trump. ill spray his f—ing brains all over then c— on them.
- no. your daughter is going to get f—ing raped and youre going to f—ing watch before your brains get blown the f—k out.
- I will make sure that she gets f—ing raped horribly
Secret Service agents questioned Spring on Jan. 26 about the threats, and he said they were never meant to be taken seriously.
“He said he was a Democrat and disagreed with the Trump Administration’s policies,” federal prosecutors wrote in court filings. “He said the comments were made in a moment of rage and he had no intent to follow through with his statements. He said he is single, lives alone, has no access to or interest in weapons, and has no formal weapons training or experience in the military or police.”
A subsequent search of Spring’s phone also revealed that X, formerly Twitter, had previously suspended his account for making similar threats against the president and his family.
“@realDonaldTrump I promise I will put a bullet in your head,” one posting read.
The phone search also revealed messages in which Spring told another person he had posted the threats to social media, calling them “rage filled comments” that he felt “dumb” and “embarrassed” for posting.
Following his release, Spring will be required to serve two years on supervised release.
