President Donald Trump speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
A Texas man is headed to prison after spewing assassination threats online about President Donald Trump that he later argued was “protected speech.”
One of Francisco Mena’s threats — a post on YouTube — featured the words “Kill Trump” more than 20 times, according to federal prosecutors. In others, the 37-year-old proclaimed, “Give me a really good sniper,” and posted emojis of swords, a skull and crossbones, and a coffin. He also vowed to harm federal immigration officers.
“Threats against the president and federal officers are crimes that my office takes very seriously,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould in a statement Friday.
Mena was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison last week after he pleaded guilty in June to one count of threatening a federal official. Prosecutors say Mena “repeatedly issued violent threats” against Trump and ICE agents between May 13 and May 25, 2025.
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“The defendant repeatedly threatened to assault and murder the president, writing variations of ‘KILL TRUMP’ across multiple dates and platforms,” the DOJ said in a press release Friday. “He also issued threats directed at federal law enforcement officers stating that if ICE agents came to his residence, he would ‘respond with a gunfight,’ and claiming he had previously stabbed an ICE agent and ‘would love to do this again.'”
In addition to allegedly threatening Trump and ICE, prosecutors said Mena targeted the president’s supporters. “You are the prime target in the whole U.S.A.,” he wrote on YouTube, according to the federal complaint. “Blacks, white, Mexican, Asians vs. Trump supporters …. We will murder you!!!”
In another post, Mena allegedly said, “We out here killing them all slowly. Stabbed, shot, drugged, hung, everything! F— what you’re going through!!!!”
He allegedly added, “All these Trump mfs will die.”
Earlier this year, Mena’s public defenders argued that his speech was “protected” in a motion to dismiss his case.
“No reasonable juror could interpret the hyperbolic, vague, and contradictory statements alleged … ‘as a serious expression of an intent to cause a present or future harm,'” the motion said. “These rambling and contradictory comments ultimately ‘lack believability’ and could not be perceived as ‘serious’ by any objective reader.”
Mena, who is from North Richland Hills, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 10 counts of threatening a federal official. He was arrested in January.
The post ‘I will kill Trump’: Man threatened to take out president with a ‘really good sniper’ and then argued it was ‘protected speech’ — now he is headed to prison first appeared on Law & Crime.
