Alleged Would-Be Donald Trump Assassin Identified And Details Are Spilling Out

More details are emerging about Ryan Routh, the 58-year-old accused of plotting to assassinate Donald Trump on September 15. It was the second attempt on the presidential candidate's life since July 2024, when 20-year-old Thomas Crooks fired multiple times at Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania. While no shots were fired this time, Secret Service noted the barrel of a gun poking out of some bushes where Trump was playing golf and reacted by firing in the direction of the gunman. He ran, leaving his scoped AK-47 style rifle behind, and made a getaway in his car, but Routh was caught by police a short time later while driving down I-95 in Martin County, Florida, just north of Palm Beach County where the incident initially occurred.

Routh is being held in custody as authorities continue to investigate. At the time of this writing, Routh is charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and having a firearm with a scrubbed serial number. 

In the meantime, a few details have emerged about Routh. While his motives for allegedly attempting to kill Trump have not been disclosed, his social media posts paint a picture of a man disillusioned with the former president and who is passionate about ending the war between Ukraine and Russia. Police records show someone who has had a history of lawlessness.

Ryan Wesley Routh spent most of his life in North Carolina, having lived in Greensboro most recently before moving to Hawaii in May of 2024, per My Fox 8. According to the North Carolina Department of Corrections, Routh was convicted in 2002 of a felony charge of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, along with misdemeanor charges including carrying a concealed weapon, hit and run, and resisting a police officer. Later, in 2010 he was found guilty of possessing stolen goods. He was placed on probation for all of the offenses. 

A neighbor told My Fox 8 she was very surprised to hear that Routh was accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump, but she was aware of his past reputation, saying, "I've seen the guns myself and all, and, yeah, they had a lot of guns and stuff over there, and, yeah, a lot of people were afraid of him back in the day."

Since the initial Trump election, Routh's now taken down social media posts suggest he became disillusioned with the former president. He wrote in 2020, "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 and it seems you are getting worse and devolving. I will be glad when you gone," (via Independent).

In 2020, Ryan Routh posted several entries on X (formerly Twitter) in support of Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic presidential hopeful that year who is no longer a member of the party, saying she would be a "leader that will fight for World Peace and end all of the turmoil and struggles around the globe ...," per the Daily Beast. He also offered to help write speeches for her staff, adding, "I'll fly anywhere." In 2024 he posted on X that he wanted to see Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, both of whom were running as Republicans in the presidential primaries, join forces to "create a winning ticket now that we all can get behind" per Time. After the July 2024 attempt on Donald Trump's life, Routh suggested via social media that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris go to the funeral of the bystander who was killed, saying, "Trump will never do anything for them."

His drive to get directly involved was seen most clearly in his posts and actions involving the Ukranian War, which he considered a clear-cut case of "good vs. evil." Beyond social media posts, in which he regularly tweeted to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy his advice about how to handle the war, he apparently went to the region to try to volunteer and started a group called the International Volunteer Center. However, once there, he told Semafor in March 2023, "Ukraine is very often hard to work with. Many foreign soldiers leave after a week in Ukraine or must move from unit to unit to find a place they are respected and appreciated ... They're afraid that anybody and everybody is a Russian spy."