Former U.S. president Donald Trump has been the subject of two apparent attempts on his life in as many months as the Republican nominee campaigns for the Oval Office, raising concerns about escalating political violence in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Trump was at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday when U.S. Secret Service agents fired shots at a man who was seen pointing an AK-style rifle through the bushes surrounding the golf course. The gunman fled, but authorities were able to track the man down with the help of a witness who took a picture of the getaway car, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. Trump was unharmed in the incident.
The FBI says the incident “appears to be an attempted assassination.” Investigations are ongoing.
A man has been taken into custody, and law enforcement sources have told numerous outlets that the suspected gunman is Ryan Wesley Routh.
Routh stood before a federal court on Monday, and was charged with possession of a firearm while a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
He appeared in court shackled and clad in a blue jumpsuit. His next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 23 and his arraignment is set for Sept. 30.
In the aftermath of the incident, attention has turned to Routh’s criminal history, which includes numerous convictions, and his political writings on social media, which appear to show his shifting support for Trump.
Criminal history
Routh, 58, was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records.
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The 58-year-old lived in North Carolina for most of his life, where he had multiple run-ins with the law. A 2002 News & Record article reports that he was arrested after being pulled over during a traffic stop, put his hand on a gun and fled. He barricaded himself inside a roofing business that he owned, according to state incorporation filings. Following a three-hour standoff with police, Routh was arrested. In his possession was a fully automatic machine gun.
Other court records show Routh was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon, possession of stolen property and a hit-and-run in various other cases, according to NBC News. Over 100 criminal counts have been filed against the man in North Carolina.
This image provided by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office shows a Feb. 10, 2010 booking photo of Ryan Wesley Routh.
Guilford County Sheriff’s Office via AP
Routh has also been involved in a number of civil court cases since the 1990s, with authorities accusing him of failing to pay taxes on time and judges in various civil cases ordering him to pay tens of thousands to plaintiffs, CNN reports.
He moved to Kaaawa, Hawaii, in 2018 where he and his son operated a company building sheds, according to an archived version of the webpage for the business.
Routh’s eldest son, Oran, told CNN that his dad is a “loving and caring father, and an honest hardworking man.”
“I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent,” Oran wrote.
Social media posts
Routh appears to be a former Trump supporter who soured on the Republican politician after his four-year term, according to posts he made on a now-suspended X account.
Tweeting at Trump in 2020, Routh wrote: “While you were my choice in 2106 [sic], I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment [sic] and it seems you are getting worse and devolving.”
“I will be glad when you (are) gone,” Routh added.
Routh appeared to throw his support behind Senator Bernie Sanders, who attempted to gain the Democratic nomination in 2020 before dropping out and endorsing now-President Joe Biden.
“Bernie…. give them hell….. fight to the death,” Routh wrote in another post. Routh also mocked Biden as “sleepy Joe.”
Routh’s social media posts also suggest he was an avid supporter of Ukraine, tweeting on April 21 that he wanted to buy a rocket from Elon Musk so he could “load it with a warhead for Putins [sic] Black sea mansion bunker to end him.”
“Can you give me a price please,” Routh asked.
Support for Ukraine
Routh told numerous publications in 2022 that he was in Kyiv, helping the Ukrainian military effort against Russia by recruiting soldiers. However, the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Command says he never served in the Ukrainian army nor collaborated with the military in any capacity.
Over the past two-and-a-half years, Routh has periodically contacted the international legion with what spokesperson Oleksandr Shahuri described as “nonsensical” and “delusional” ideas about the war effort.
Donald Bowser, a Canadian who serves as the Country Lead for Ukraine for GIST Research, a company focused on peacekeeping and international relief for conflict areas, says he met Routh in Kyiv and described him as “crazy.”
“In the summer of 2022, I was walking with my wife down on the lovely main square of Kyiv in the Maidan, and we saw a guy who looked like a homeless person wearing a sandwich board that was recruiting for the Ukrainian military,” Bowser told Global News reporter Jackson Proskow from Petitcodiac, N.B. “That’s when I encountered Mr. Routh.”
Ryan Wesley Routh holds up a banner during a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday April 30, 2022.
AP Photo/Alex Babenko
Bowser, who has lived on and off in Ukraine for the past 34 years, said he saw a huge influx of people with no real combat or logistics experience come to Ukraine after the war broke out in February 2022. He described Routh as one of those people who “tried to attach themselves to the conflict.”
“I just asked him what he was trying to do and he said that he was recruiting. He was authorized to recruit soldiers for the Ukrainian army … and (was) putting up posters with his contacts,” Bowser said. “He had set up a website in which he had listed a number of units that he said that he was affiliated with and that he was busy trying to recruit for.”
Bowser called some of the military units listed on Routh’s website and asked if they were associated with the man.
“The response was no,” Bowser said, adding that he heard other “negative” stories about Routh.
“He had had a number of interactions with Ukrainian volunteers that were negative. He was harassing people who were trying to do work,” Bowser said.
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— With files from Global News reporter Jackson Proskow, The Associated Press and Reuters