Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course, has a history of spewing anti-Trump rhetoric, a lengthy criminal record and an obsession with Ukraine.
Authorities are rapidly investigating the second assassination attempt in two months on President Trump while he was playing golf in West Palm Beach on Sunday afternoon, but details about the 58-year-old suspect are yet to be released.
Ruth, a Hawaiian, was arrested a few holes before the 78-year-old former president when a Secret Service agent noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle protruding from among some bushes along the course about 400 yards away.
Here's what we know so far about the suspected shooter in custody.
Trump critics
Routh has repeatedly criticized Trump on social media and posted about the threat he poses to democracy, echoing recent comments from Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.
In an April post on X, Rouse argued that Trump wanted to “turn Americans into slaves who rebel against their masters” and advised Biden, who was still seeking reelection at the time, to make “making America a democratic and free country” the center of his campaign.
“Democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose,” Rouse wrote, repeating a common theme used by both Biden and Harris.
“Failure is not an option,” the suspect said. “The world is counting on us to show the way.”
After the July assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Rouse appeared on X to urge Biden and Harris to join the former president in visiting those who were injured, but also continued to attack the Republican presidential nominee.
“Visit the hospital for the victims of the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the firefighter who died. Trump would never do that. Show the world what a real leader does,” Rouse wrote.
The suspect also tweeted in June 2020 that he had supported Republican President Trump in 2016 but was disappointed with his term in the White House.
“I and the world had hoped that President Trump would be a different and better man than the candidate suggested and we have all been sorely disappointed. You seem to be getting worse and degenerating. Are you an idiot? I will be glad to see you go,” Routh wrote.
Self-published books
Routh wrote a rambling, self-published book last year in which he expressed disdain for Trump and even urged Iran to kill him.
The book, listed on Amazon with no publisher listed, is titled “Ukraine's Unwinnable War: Democracy's Fatal Flaw, World Abandonment, and Global Citizenship: Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, and the End of Humanity.”
Routh described the former president as a “fool” and a “clown” for both the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and his “enormous blunder” of withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.
“Feel free to assassinate President Trump,” Routh wrote about Iran.
Routh said he voted for Trump in 2016, adding that he must take some of the blame for “the dumb kid we picked to be our next president who ends up being president.”
Connection with Ukraine
Routh has repeatedly voiced support for Ukraine in his books and in numerous social media posts.
He was planning to visit Kyiv in the summer of 2022 and also ran a website to raise funds and recruit volunteers to join the fight against the Russian invaders.
Footage released by media outlets shows Routh holding a sign that read, “We cannot tolerate corruption and evil for the next 50 years or more. End Russia for the sake of our children,” during a small demonstration in Kiev's Independence Square in April 2022.
In the footage, he was wearing a blue vest with an American flag on the back.
Ukrainian authorities distanced themselves from Routh following his arrest, saying on Monday they had no ties to him and warning that Russia would use his support for Ukraine for propaganda purposes.
Oleksandr Shahri, head of the Foreign Relations Coordination Department of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Command, said Laus had never served or cooperated with the Ukrainian military.
But Routh regularly contacted the International Legion of Ukraine and communicated “nonsensical ideas that can only be described as delusional,” Shahri added.
Where does he live?
He has spent most of his life in North Carolina, including in Greensboro, and attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University, according to online records and his LinkedIn.
Routh moved to Ka'aawa, Hawaii around 2018.
According to an archived version of the company's website, Rouse and his son run a small construction company called Campbox Honolulu, which primarily builds sheds and tiny homes.
He once donated one of his buildings to the homeless, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
“We're all tired of seeing homeless people across the island with nowhere to go,” he told the outlet in 2019.
Legal
Records show that while living in Greensboro, Routh There were numerous clashes with police.
He was convicted in 2002 of possessing a machine gun, a “weapon of mass destruction,” after an hours-long standoff with police, according to online records.
The records do not provide many details about the incident, News and Records According to reports at the time, Routh had been stopped for a traffic violation and barricaded himself inside a roofing company with a gun.
In separate incidents, he was charged with misdemeanor counts of hit-and-run, resisting arrest and a concealed weapons violation, records show.
According to documents, Routh was convicted of a felony count of possession of stolen property in 2010, as well as misdemeanors including unlawful possession of a weapon, hit-and-run, speeding and driving while license revoked.
In each of those cases, Routh received probation or a suspended sentence and avoided prison time.
Family Life
Mr Routh is believed to have at least two sons.
One of his sons, Oran Routh, told the Daily Mail that his father disliked Trump “like all reasonable people” but insisted he was not a violent man.
“He's my father and as far as I know he only has a few traffic tickets,” Oran told the outlet.
“It's crazy,” his son said of the accusations against his father. “I know my dad and I love him, but this is nothing like him.”
“He's not a violent person. He's a hard worker, a great father. He's a great guy, a good person and he's worked his whole life.”
In a separate statement to CNN, Oran said: “I cannot comment beyond his character profile as a loving and caring father. I do not know what happened in Florida, but I hope that the situation has been exaggerated.”
Contacted shortly after news of the assassination attempt broke, Routh's other son, Adam, who works at a hardware store in Hawaii, said he had no information but didn't believe his father would do such a thing.
Political Views
Voter records show Rouse was registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012. He voted in person in the state's Democratic primary in March 2024.
Rouse has a history of supporting progressive causes online.
Federal campaign finance records show that since 2019, Rouse used his Hawaii address to make 19 small political donations totaling $140 to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.
But his more than 500 posts on X also show that he supports a wide range of politicians from left to right, and at various times he has endorsed not only Trump, but also Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Nikki Haley.
“I tire of being asked if I'm a Democrat or a Republican because I refuse to be pigeonholed into a category,” Rouse wrote in his book.
With post wire
