Chicago man threatens to shoot President Trump, decapitate son Barron

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News on Apr 10, 2026

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A Chicago man was arrested after threatening to shoot President Donald Trump and decapitate his youngest son.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said Michael Kovco sent several electronic messages to the official White House website last month expressing his intentions to harm the president, Barron Trump and federal agents who come to arrest him.

The 29-year-old suspect got the attention of Secret Service agents by sending a March 17 threat to the president signed by “Mr. I’m going to [expletive] kill your child Kovco,” according to prosecutors.

Agents went to the suspect’s home March 19 to find he wasn’t there. Someone at the two-bedroom apartment reportedly said Kovco “was not presently compliant with his medication, he was unemployed, and rarely left [the residence].”

Kovco is accused of sending five messages that day threatening to “hunt” Secret Service officers and kill Trump and 20-year-old Barron, the president’s only son with first lady Melania Trump.

“I’m literally gonna find out how Barron Trump walks around in NYC or DC or wherever the f–k he is and run at him with a serrated bread knife and saw that motherf–kers head off,” he allegedly wrote in one of his emails.

Kovco is also accused of vowing to shoot the president with “a high caliber sniper rifle.”

He was arrested on April 3. A detention hearing was scheduled for Friday.

He’s also accused of sending an Aug. 18 message via the Central Intelligence Agency’s public website containing a threat against the president.

Kovco’s transmissions were said to have contained contact information including his phone number and email address. Authorities said the IP address from which the messages were sent match that of the suspect’s home, which he shares with two adults.

Kovco faces a sentence of up to five years in federal prison.