Left: Donald Trump speaks at the annual Road to Majority conference in Washington, DC, in June 2024 (Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP). Right: Douglas Thrams (St. Joseph County Police Department).
An Indiana man has been sentenced for vowing to kill President Donald Trump and urging people on TikTok to stop protesting and start using “weapons” to see “some real f—ing change,” according to court records.
Douglas Thrams, 23, was sentenced Thursday to time served and two years of supervised release after already spending 10 months behind bars for the threats, according to federal court filings. U.S. District Judge Cristal Brisco, a Joe Biden appointee, handed down the sentence after it was recommended by both the Justice Department and Thrams” public defender.
“In January 2025, Douglas Thrams posted a series of threatening videos to his TikTok account online,” federal prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum last month.
“In one video, he encouraged people to take their ‘Second Amendment’ rights, go to their ‘local government building,’ and ‘use’ their ‘weapons’ because ‘that’s the only way forward,'” the prosecutors said. “In a second video, Thrams tapped an airsoft rifle and encouraged people to ‘show up’ and use their Second Amendment rights, and that there ‘is literally no way forward without violence.'”
In another video, Thrams stated, “Hey can we stop talking about it and actually be about it. Seriously. Stop talking about it. Be about it. Take your Second Amendment, go to your local government building, and f—ing be about it. You want to see some real f—ing change in this world, stop protesting and stop using your voice, and use your f—ing rights. Use your weapons. That’s the only way forward.”
The clips were removed by TikTok and flagged by authorities in Indiana, who alerted FBI agents and helped track Thrams down. He was arrested and booked in St. Joseph County on a charge of making threats against a president. He pleaded guilty in August.
“We the people need to band together and use our rights, amendments, and constitutes and take our weapons that are a part of our Second Amendment right to bear arms and either instill the fear of God in the government or use those right to outright just overthrow the government and institute a new one,” Thrams said in another TikTok post, according to the DOJ’s federal complaint.
Referencing Trump, Thrams stated, “He needs to be assassinated and this time, don’t f—ing miss,” according to the complaint.
“I am down for the cause. I am down to mow the lawn. I’m down to paint the town red,” Thrams also stated in another video.
Thrams additionally made references to “encourage people” to go to their local government buildings and “not go to the Capitol Building like they did for January 6th,” the complaint says. “You tell me where to point that godd— weapon and we can go Nazi hunting,” Thrams vowed.
The young man added, “It is in our Declaration of Independence that if we see fit, we the people see fit, that we are being controlled by a tyrannical government, or just an evil one, that we are legally allowed to use our rights, laws, amendments, and constitutes to take control of said government, possibly even enforce a new one if need be. So yes, I’m down for the cause. Like I said, I’m down to paint the town red … Just tell me where to go.”
