What we know about Ryan Routh, suspect with gun at Trump golf course

Ryan Routh, the man suspected of planning to kill former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course, once voted for Trump before growing to hate the man, according to a book he wrote.

Routh, 58, said he took some of the blame for the “child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless.”

Secret Service agents spotted Routh holding an SKS-type, 7.62×39 caliber rifle with a scope while Trump, 78, was playing golf Sunday afternoon at one of his courses in West Palm Beach, Fla., according to authorities. Agents opened fire on Routh, who fled the scene. Routh himself didn’t get off any shots, investigators said.

Before apparently seeking to assassinate Trump, Routh wrote in a self-published 2023 book that Iran should do it.

“You are free to assassinate Trump,” he wrote of Iran in the book, titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War.”

Routh’s social media pages showed his political transformation as he went from a Trump backer to supporting President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose,” he wrote on social media in April.

In the years in between, Routh also expressed support online for several other political figures, including Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Nikki Haley.

“I get so tired of people asking me if I am a Democrat or Republican as I refuse to be put in a category,” he wrote in his book.

After Thomas Crooks attempted to kill Trump on July 13 outside Pittsburgh, Routh suggested that President Biden and Vice President Harris visit the wounded victims and attend the funeral of Corey Comperatore, the firefighter killed in the shooting. He said Trump “will never do anything for them.”

Routh’s main cause on social media appeared to be the Ukraine-Russia war, as he frequently attempted to drum up support for the Ukrainian cause. He even attended an independence rally in Kyiv in April 2022, two months after Russia launched its attack, according to video reviewed by The Associated Press.

Though Routh promised online to “fight and die for Ukraine,” he never served in the Ukrainian military in any capacity, according to the country’s leaders.

For most of his life, Routh lived in Greensboro, N.C. In 2002, he ran from a traffic stop and holed up at a roofing business he owned for three hours, allegedly keeping police at bay with a fully automatic rifle, according to police and media reports from the time. Routh was convicted for possessing an illegal gun, a felony offense.

In 2010, he was also convicted on misdemeanor charges of illegally carrying a concealed weapon, hit-and-run, speeding and  driving with a revoked license and a felony count of possessing stolen goods.

In both felony cases, the judges let Routh off with probation and/or suspended sentences, so he never served jail time.

It is unclear how Routh obtained the firearm he was holding in West Palm Beach on Saturday, but federal prosecutors charged him Monday with possessing a firearm despite a prior felony conviction and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He faces up to 20 years in prison on those charges.

In 2018, Routh moved to the Honolulu suburb of Ka’a’awa on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. He and his son had a business together building sheds, according to a company website. Back in North Carolina, Routh had owned a roofing company.

With News Wire Services