Who is Ryan Wesley Routh? The suspect is in custody after Trump golf club incident.
Just two months after a man tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, the Secret Service says it stopped what appeared to be a second assassination attempt against the former president. Unlike the July 13 shooting at Trump’s rally, in which a member of the crowd was killed and Trump was injured, no one was harmed this time. But the incident has raised questions about the ability of the Secret Service to protect the former president and sparked new concerns about the risk of ongoing political violence this election cycle.
On Sunday, law enforcement officials say, the former president was playing golf on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when Secret Service agents spotted a gun barrel in the bushes on the perimeter of the course. Agents surrounded the former president and opened fire, prompting a man to flee the scene.
The suspected gunman was 300–500 yards from the former president, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw in a press conference. (While close, the suspect was not as close as Trump’s July shooter, who was within roughly 150 yards of the president when he opened fire.) Police said they found an AK-47 style rifle with a scope, along with two backpacks and a camera, in the bushes.
It is still unclear whether the suspected gunman fired any shots before the Secret Service reacted. The former president — according to Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, who spoke to the president on Sunday after the attempted attack — was safe and in good spirits.
A witness saw someone fleeing the vicinity in a black Nissan immediately after the incident, according to Bradshaw, and law enforcement officials announced that they apprehended a suspect, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, on Interstate 95 shortly after. Officials said that Routh was unarmed and appeared calm as he was arrested. Who is Ryan Wesley Routh?
Unlike the man who attempted to assassinate Trump in July, Routh has a colorful public history. Routh previously lived in North Carolina, but had moved to Hawaii in recent years and said he was building affordable housing there. He was interviewed by the New York Times in 2023 for an article about Americans acting as freelance fighters for the war in Ukraine, despite little or no qualifications to do so. Routh, who had no prior military experience, spoke with a Times reporter about his plans to recruit soldiers who had fled the Taliban in Afghanistan and transport them to Ukraine to join the war efforts.
“By the time I got off the phone with Mr. Routh some minutes later it was clear he was in way over his head,” the reporter, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, wrote. “He talked of buying off corrupt officials, forging passports and doing whatever it takes to get his Afghan cadre to Ukraine, but he had no real way to accomplish his goals.
