Who Is Ryan Wesley Routh? Suspect Held In Trump Assassination Bid ‘Linked’ To Ukraine,

Former US President Donald Trump and Republican nominee survived an apparent assassination attempt in Florida on Sunday, two months after surviving a shooting in Pennsylvania during a campaign rally.

Gunshots were fired outside his golf course in Florida on Sunday afternoon. A 58-year-old suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, was arrested after Secret Service agents opened fire near the boundary of Trump’s golf course.

Biden-Harris Bumper Sticker

Routh was hiding in bushes and when Secret Service agents opened fire, he reportedly bolted out of the shrubbery and escaped in a black car. Authorities tracked down the car with the help of witnesses. A high-powered AK-47-style rifle with a scope and a GoPro camera was recovered at the scene.

“We have somebody in custody right now that is a potential suspect,” news agency AFP quoted Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. According to the New York Post, Routh was found to have a Biden-Harris bumper sticker on his pickup truck.

Who is Ryan Wesley Routh?

According to a New York Times report, Routh is a former construction worker from North Carolina Greensboro. He had no formal military background but expressed his wish to participate in armed conflict in the past, particularly in Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion. In an X post, Routh declared his willingness to “fight and die” in Ukraine. “I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE,” he wrote.

In a previous interview with Newsweek Romania, Routh had said that he initially went to Ukraine to “fight” to support the Ukrainians. After arriving in Kyiv, he helped recruit people to get involved in the war. We need everyone here fighting… that’s why I’m in Kyiv so every project that I promote is about getting people here to support the Ukrainians,” he had said.

Ukraine Denies Any Links

On Monday, Kyiv denied links to a man accused of trying to assassinate Trump, after it emerged that the suspect was a supporter of Ukraine who had said he wanted to recruit foreign volunteers to fight there.

Ukrainian officials said they had nothing to do with him, and accused Moscow of seizing on the link for propaganda purposes. The Kremlin, for its part, implied there was a link between the assassination attempt and U.S. support for Kyiv, saying “playing with fire has its consequences”.

Not The First Time

This wasn’t Routh’s first run-in with the law. In 2002, he was arrested after barricading himself inside a building with a fully automatic weapon in Greensboro. Serious charges were levelled against him, however, the outcome of the case remains unclear.

Routh’s son told Daily Mail that his father “hates Donald Trump like all reasonable people”. He also stated that his father is not a violent person and didn’t believe he owned a firearm. US President Joe Biden, in an official statement, commended the work of the Secret Service and their law enforcement partners for their “vigilance and their efforts to keep the former President and those around him safe”.