A former Marine who is also running for Congress was arrested and charged with threatening to kill President Donald Trump, the Department of Justice announced on July 16.

William Upham, 35, of Jacksonville, Florida, was taken into custody on July 10. He appeared in federal court in Jacksonville. The charges were formally filed on July 15 under case number 3:26-mj-01296-SJH. If convicted, he faces up to five years in federal prison. The case is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe announced the charge in a DOJ press release The Guardian, 2026-07-16.

The Secret Service — the federal agency responsible for protecting the president — began its investigation after receiving reports that Upham may have threatened Trump. Agents reviewed two videos Upham posted on his social media accounts. In both videos, he wore his military uniform. In the first, he called for the overthrow of the Trump administration and said, "This is a call to arms." He recommended using a semiautomatic rifle such as an AR-15 with "two shots to the chest" and "one shot to the head." In the second video, he said Trump "must be killed" and compared the president to the antichrist described in the Bible.

The complaint also says Upham sent a message to another person saying he made the videos to "declare war" against Trump and would "kill President Trump at the time that God chooses." The Secret Service found that Upham had access to guns and had made alarming statements to law enforcement as recently as July 2026 The Guardian, 2026-07-16.

Upham lives in Jacksonville. He is a former state prosecutor and a former Marine. He is also a Republican write-in candidate for Florida's fifth congressional district, meaning his name will not appear on the ballot but voters can write it in. He is challenging the current representative, John Rutherford Florida Times-Union. The combination of his candidacy and his alleged statements makes this an unusual case — it brings together electoral politics, military service, and a federal threat prosecution.

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao responded on social media, saying Upham is no longer a Marine and that his comments were unacceptable and do not represent Marine Corps values The Guardian, 2026-07-16. The fact that the acting secretary personally spoke out shows how seriously the Navy Department takes the image of a Marine in uniform appearing in threatening videos, even after that person has left the service.

This case stands out from a typical threat prosecution in a few ways. Upham is a former prosecutor and a congressional candidate, which means he has legal training and a public profile. That makes it harder to argue he did not understand the law or the consequences of what he said. The threats were also very specific — he named a type of gun and described where to shoot. Federal prosecutors generally treat that level of detail as a sign of real danger. And because Upham allegedly told someone else the videos were meant to "declare war," prosecutors have a statement beyond the videos themselves to support their case.

The five-year maximum sentence comes from a federal law — 18 U.S.C. § 871 — that makes it a crime to threaten the president. If Upham is convicted, a judge would use sentencing guidelines that look at how specific the threat was, whether the person had access to weapons, and any past troubling behavior. The complaint's focus on Upham's firearm access and his recent statements to law enforcement suggests prosecutors are building a record on exactly those factors.

The broader context here is one of heightened alert. The Secret Service has been under intense pressure to take presidential threats seriously since two assassination attempts were made against Trump in 2024. Those attempts are not part of this case. But the speed of the investigation and the fact that a cabinet-level official commented publicly both fit a pattern of an agency and a Justice Department determined to treat every credible threat with maximum seriousness.

Upham's congressional campaign also faces an obvious problem. A federal felony charge does not legally stop someone from being a write-in candidate under Florida election law. But a conviction would raise questions about whether he could hold office, and more immediately, about whether a campaign can survive when its candidate is in federal custody. The Rutherford campaign has not been reported as commenting on the matter, and since no such comment appears in the verified record, it cannot be reported here.