An officer with the Palm Beach County sheriff’s office works outside of Trump International Golf Club after the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Photo: Lynne Sladky/AP
On Sunday, law enforcement said it had thwarted a second attempt on Donald Trump’s life in just a few weeks. Secret Service agents fired at an armed man outside the former president’s Florida golf club and later arrested him during a traffic stop after he fled the scene. The suspect, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, was reportedly within 500 yards of Trump as he played golf on his West Palm Beach course. Here’s what we know about the incident and Routh so far.
While Trump golfed Sunday afternoon at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, members of his Secret Service detail were clearing the area ahead of him, as is protocol. One agent reportedly spotted the barrel of a rifle through a nearby fence surrounded by bushes. Agents proceeded to fire in the direction of a gunman, who then fled. According to law-enforcement officials, an eyewitness on the scene spotted the suspect getting into a black Nissan and took a picture of his car and its license plate. Police proceeded to pursue the suspect on I-95 and eventually detained him. The suspect was later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh. Body-worn camera footage of Routh’s apprehension was released Monday.
Law-enforcement officials later revealed during a press conference that an AK-47-style rifle with a scope, a GoPro camera, and two backpacks were discovered at the scene. However, a firearms expert told the Washington Post that the rifle seen in photos shared by the authorities appears to be an “SKS-type rifle” with a curved magazine that resembles an AK-47-style rifle. Per officials, Routh was within 300 to 500 yards of Trump from his position.
The picture emerging of the suspect is one of a man with intense but varied political beliefs and a growing animus toward Trump. On his now-deleted X account, Routh posted often about politics, particularly in support of Ukraine. He’s tweeted support for politicians on all ends of the spectrum, including Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, and, at one time, Trump.
Routh, who currently lives in Hawaii, has ties to North Carolina. He’s currently still registered as an unaffiliated voter in the state, and he reportedly voted Democratic during the state primary earlier this year, per the Raleigh News & Observer. On his LinkedIn page, Routh wrote that he relocated from the state to Hawaii, where he says he builds “very simple housing structures for the less fortunate.”
The New York Times interviewed Routh in 2023 for a piece about Americans volunteering to fight in Ukraine. In the article, Routh, who’s described as a former construction worker hailing from Greensboro, North Carolina, talks about wanting to recruit Afghan soldiers fleeing the Taliban and helping them to enter Ukraine illegally. “We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” he told the outlet. Routh spoke from Washington, D.C., for the interview, but has visited Ukraine several times in support of its war effort. It’s not evident that he himself ever fought for the country. In an statement to NBC News, Ukraine’s Foreign Legion said, “We would like to clarify that Ryan Wesley Routh has never been part of, associated with, or linked to the International Legion in any capacity. Any claims or suggestions indicating otherwise are entirely inaccurate.”
Routh also appears to have at least one prior run-in with the law. A 2002 article from the Greensboro News & Record says that a man with the same age and name as Routh was arrested after barricading himself in a building with a gun in a three-hour standoff. No one was injured.
During his first federal-court hearing Monday, Routh was hit with two charges: possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. It’s currently unclear if Routh himself fired any shots or if all the gunfire was from the Secret Service.
So far, a specific motive for Routh’s actions has yet to be revealed, but the investigation into the incident is ongoing, with the FBI taking the lead on the operation.
The suspect appeared to express changing views on Trump throughout the years. In one typo-laden post from June 2020, Routh seemed to indicate that he was a Trump supporter in the past but had since moved on from the former president. “@realDonaldTrump While you were my choice in 2106, I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving,” he said, per CBS News. “I will be glad when you gone.”
The Associated Press reports that Routh previously wrote about Trump being killed in a self-published book in 2023 called Ukraine’s Unwinnable War. In the book, Routh reportedly called Trump a “buffoon” and a “fool” and suggested that Iran kill the former president. “You are free to assassinate Trump,” he said of the country, per the AP.
