The man arrested in connection with an apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump is a former supporter who turned against the former president in part for foreign policy reasons and later traveled to Ukraine, where he made an ill-fated attempt to raise a volunteer force to fight the Russians.
The revelations about Ryan Wesley Routh emerged Monday, a day after a Secret Service agent rousted him from a hiding place at the West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course where Trump had been playing. Sheriff’s deputies later took him into custody.
Routh, it was revealed in court papers, had been camped out in a wooded area with a loaded SKS-style rifle near the course for 12 hours before he was spotted, raising new questions about whether the Secret Service was doing enough to protect a politician who had already survived one assassination attempt.
Trump was on the fifth fairway and not in Routh’s line of sight when the agent “engaged” the suspect, said Ronald Rowe, acting director of the Secret Service. Routh also never fired his weapon.
But Routh, 58, was equipped to kill, the criminal complaint said.
In addition to a digital camera and two bags, investigators found a loaded SKS-style 7.62x39 caliber rifle with a scope that had an “obliterated” serial number and a black plastic bag containing food likely to sustain Routh while he waited in the wooded area.
Routh was arraigned Monday at the Paul G. Rogers Federal Court House in West Palm Beach on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
The FBI has confirmed it is investigating “an apparent attempted assassination” of Trump on Sunday, but so far Routh has not been charged with trying to kill him.
Body camera video released by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office shows Routh wearing sunglasses and a pink T-shirt pulled over his head, exposing his midsection. He had been told to pull his shirt up to show he had no concealed weapons, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told NBC News. He was arrested without incident.
The next day, Routh appeared unruffled, dressed in prison scrubs during his brief court appearance. He said he has a 25-year-old son, and he told the judge he has no money but owns two trucks in Hawaii, where he now lives, that are worth about $1,000 each.Represented by a public defender, Routh was given a Sept. 23 return court date and was then sent back to jail.
There was no discussion of a possible motive. In a self-published book, Routh said he voted for Trump in 2016 and came to regret it after Trump made what he called a “tremendous blunder” in 2018 and withdrew the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal.
“I must take part of the blame,” he wrote in “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity,” which was published last year. He added that Trump “ended up being brainless, but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize.”
“You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgement and the dismantling of the deal,” Routh wrote.
Then he added, “No one here in the U.S. seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection.”
Federal investigators released a criminal complaint that said Routh had been staking out Trump International Golf Club for about 12 hours, starting at 1:59 a.m. Sunday, until 1:31 p.m. Sunday, when a Secret Service agent walking the perimeter saw what appeared to be a rifle poking out of a tree line.
The agent, the complaint says, fired in the direction of the rifle and flushed out a man, later identified as Routh, who was seen getting into a Nissan SUV and driving away, according to a witness. Officers located the vehicle and pulled Routh over on Interstate 95 less than an hour later, and the witness who saw him leaving the golf course identified him.
Trump survived an attempted assassination in July when a bullet grazed one of his ears while he was addressing supporters at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was killed, and so far investigators have not divulged a motive.
Routh has, of late, been living in a small town outside Honolulu with his son, according to public records and statements made in court. But he had spent most of his life in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he ran a roofing business, according to public records. Records show he had more than 100 run-ins with the law but never did any time.
In 2002, court records show, Routh was convicted of illegally possessing a machine gun.
Court records for a person named Ryan Routh also show a 2003 divorce, along with multiple civil judgments after contractors and individuals sued a roofing company he helped run.
Routh still has kin in Greensboro, according to a public records search. His relatives were reluctant to speak with reporters Monday.
A former neighbor, Kim Mungo, said Routh lived next door to her for 18 years and never brought up politics or Ukraine with her. She described him as “gorgeous” and said the house belonged to his ex-wife.
Mungo said she had been watching over the house while Routh was moving permanently to Hawaii.
Asked whether she ever saw weapons in the residence, Mungo said she had seen some rifles — and one very large animal.
Routh was active on social media. In 2020, he posted on Twitter (now X) that he had supported Trump in 2016 but was deeply disappointed in him. He also used X to signal his support for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who was then running for the Democratic presidential nomination. And like Trump, he disparaged President Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe.”
While he was living in Hawaii, Routh made several contributions, from $1 to $25, to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue in 2019 and 2020, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In his 291-page tome, Routh bristled at being pinned down as a political partisan.
“I get so tired of people asking me if I am a Democrat or Republican as I refuse to be put into a category and I must always answer independant,” he wrote.
Routh disparaged Trump as a “fool” and a “buffoon,” but he credited him for reaching out to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Biden “has yet to be man enough to make that phone call and do the right thing,” Routh wrote.
Routh was also a vocal supporter of Ukraine and visited it in 2022. That summer, NBC News spoke with Routh, who said in a message that the West’s “limited response” to the Russia-Ukraine war was “extremely disappointing” and called the moment “an indictment of the entire human race.” There was never any formal interview, and Routh’s comments were not included in NBC News’ coverage of the war.
In an interview with Newsweek Romania in 2022, Routh said he had volunteered to fight for the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine but was turned down because of his age and lack of combat experience.
Instead, Routh claimed, he opted to help with military recruitment efforts in Kyiv. A representative of the International Legion told NBC News on Monday that Routh never served in its military.
In his book, Routh appeared to be unhappy with how the government in Kyiv treats foreigners who joined its fight against Russia.
“Sadly Ukraine does not roll out the red carpet for foreign fighters and volunteers, nor do they celebrate their sacrifices and help,” he wrote.
