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 35-year-old man in Michigan will spend more than a year locked up for repeatedly threatening to kill President Donald Trump and assault his family members in a series of social media posts that often went into grotesque detail. U.S. District Judge Jane M. Beckering on Monday ordered Richard James Spring to serve 18 months in a federal correctional facility, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Beckering handed down the sentence after Spring agreed to plead guilty to one count of making threats to kill and injure the President of the United States. In exchange for his plea, Justice Department prosecutors in the Western District of Michigan dropped an additional count of threatening to kill the president as well as two counts of making interstate threatening communications.
As part of his plea agreement, Spring will also be required to undergo mental health, anger management, and substance abuse counseling.
In court filings, prosecutors detailed the threats Spring made against Trump and his family, beginning with a Jan. 22 TikTok post.
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“i promise I will make SURE he is assassinated before his first f—ing year,” Spring wrote, according to a sentencing memo filed last month.
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.
