Chicago man threatens to shoot President Trump, decapitate son Barron ⁠4%

By Brian Niemietz⁠0%

4/10/2026, 8:16:19 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 14 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Negativity Bias, and Quote-first Misdirection, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 25.6% saturation with 80 hits. Analysis detected 583 faulty-reasoning hits from 313 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 17.5% and a BS Rank of ⁠4% (21,107 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 96.40% of the article peer group.

A Chicago man was arrested after threatening to shoot President 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. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 2.3%newyorkdailynews: 3.2%Confirmation Bias0.0%This article: 7.3%Brian Niemietz: 1.8%newyorkdailynews: 0.8%Anchoring Bias7.3%This article: 7.0%Brian Niemietz: 3.3%newyorkdailynews: 3.4%Availability Heuristic7.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.1%newyorkdailynews: 1.1%Representativeness Heuristic0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.1%newyorkdailynews: 1.0%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.5%newyorkdailynews: 1.3%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 7.0%newyorkdailynews: 6.1%Framing Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.2%newyorkdailynews: 0.4%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.3%newyorkdailynews: 0.5%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.1%newyorkdailynews: 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.5%newyorkdailynews: 2.8%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 3.8%Brian Niemietz: 0.4%newyorkdailynews: 1.2%Pessimism Bias3.8%This article: 19.8%Brian Niemietz: 10.9%newyorkdailynews: 9.8%Negativity Bias19.8%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 3.0%newyorkdailynews: 1.5%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 14.7%Brian Niemietz: 2.1%newyorkdailynews: 1.5%Fundamental Attribution Error14.7%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.1%newyorkdailynews: 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 2.6%newyorkdailynews: 1.3%In-Group Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.3%newyorkdailynews: 0.4%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 3.8%newyorkdailynews: 3.9%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 3.0%newyorkdailynews: 0.5%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.5%newyorkdailynews: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 13.7%Brian Niemietz: 1.4%newyorkdailynews: 1.4%Recency Bias13.7%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.8%newyorkdailynews: 0.4%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.1%newyorkdailynews: 0.0%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 5.0%newyorkdailynews: 1.2%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.0%newyorkdailynews: 0.2%Straw Man0.0%This article: 20.8%Brian Niemietz: 5.1%newyorkdailynews: 3.2%Appeal to Authority20.8%This article: 3.8%Brian Niemietz: 1.0%newyorkdailynews: 1.1%False Dilemma3.8%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.1%newyorkdailynews: 0.4%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.2%newyorkdailynews: 0.1%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 4.3%newyorkdailynews: 4.1%Hasty Generalization0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.0%newyorkdailynews: 0.3%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.8%newyorkdailynews: 0.4%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 25.6%Brian Niemietz: 9.6%newyorkdailynews: 7.4%Appeal to Emotion25.6%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.4%newyorkdailynews: 0.6%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.3%newyorkdailynews: 3.4%Post Hoc (False Cause)0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.3%newyorkdailynews: 0.1%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.5%newyorkdailynews: 0.5%Burden of Proof0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.0%newyorkdailynews: 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.1%newyorkdailynews: 0.2%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 7.3%Brian Niemietz: 3.2%newyorkdailynews: 2.6%Anecdotal7.3%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.0%newyorkdailynews: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 2.1%newyorkdailynews: 1.6%Ambiguity (Equivocation)0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.0%newyorkdailynews: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.0%newyorkdailynews: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.1%newyorkdailynews: 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.3%newyorkdailynews: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.4%newyorkdailynews: 0.1%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 14.4%Brian Niemietz: 4.4%newyorkdailynews: 2.1%Unattributed Quote14.4%This article: 17.3%Brian Niemietz: 3.3%newyorkdailynews: 1.1%Quote-first Misdirection17.3%This article: 16.9%Brian Niemietz: 5.2%newyorkdailynews: 6.7%Biased Writer Voice16.9%This article: 13.7%Brian Niemietz: 1.3%newyorkdailynews: 3.9%Indoctrination13.7%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.8%newyorkdailynews: 0.8%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 1.3%newyorkdailynews: 0.2%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Brian Niemietz: 0.2%newyorkdailynews: 0.6%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…0.0%

313 words analyzed.

Speakers

2speakers27%attributed speech227writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 10 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 16 words • 0.0% coverageUnited States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois • 43 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 11 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 23 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 0.0% coverageMichael Kovco • 43 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 16 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 6 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 7 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 22 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 16 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 23 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coverage
Selected voice

Michael Kovco

100%flagged-word coverage
43 attributed words50% of attributed speech81% writer coverage
0%50.0%100.0%Indoctrination+100.0 ptsWriter: 0.0%Michael Kovco: 100.0%100.0%Biased Writer Voice+95.6 ptsWriter: 4.4%Michael Kovco: 100.0%100.0%Quote-first Misdirection+95.2 ptsWriter: 4.8%Michael Kovco: 100.0%100.0%Unattributed Quote-19.8 ptsWriter: 19.8%Michael Kovco: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.