Two months after being the target of an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump has reportedly been shot at again, according to the FBI. The former president was at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when shots were fired on Sunday, September 15, shortly before 2 p.m. (8 p.m. in Paris).
At a press conference, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw explained that a man was spotted pointing a gun through the fence by a Secret Service agent while Donald Trump was playing. The suspect was then targeted by the agents and fled in an SUV before being arrested. American media reports say the suspect is Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, an independent home builder in Hawaii. According to the channel CNNhe has a criminal record spanning decades and regularly posts about politics and current events, sometimes criticizing Donald Trump. The Palm Beach County prosecutor said the man remained silent at the time of his arrest.
Still according to CNNRouth is also said to have ties to North Carolina, where he registered to vote in 2012. He reportedly voted in the Democratic primary in March of this year, according to the state’s Board of Elections. Federal fundraising records also show he donated more than $100 to the Democratic Party through the ActBlue fundraising platform.
Volunteer for war in Ukraine?
Through research on the Internet, the American media were also able to get their hands on old interviews with Ryan Wesley Routh, in both the national and international press. Interviewed by The New York Times in 2023 for a story about “Americans volunteering to help the war effort in Ukraine” Ryan Wesley Routh, who had no military experience, said he traveled to the country after the Russian invasion and wanted to recruit Afghan soldiers to fight there, the daily.
On social media and in the press, Routh has made his support for Ukraine clear after the Russian invasion. “I AM READY TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER, FIGHT AND DIE,” he wrote on X in 2022, days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the messaging app Signal, Routh wrote in his bio that “civilians must change this war and prevent future wars.” On WhatsApp, his bio also read: “Each of us must do our part every day, in the smallest ways, to help support human rights, freedom and democracy; we must all help the Chinese.” In 2023, however, he told a reporter for New York Times never having fought in Ukraine himself, saying he was too old and had no military experience.
Penchant for weapons
Overall, the American press paints a portrait of an unstable man, with a penchant for violent rhetoric and weapons. The World, further reports that in late 2002, a man bearing his name was arrested and convicted in his hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina, for possession of a “weapon of mass destruction,” a term used to describe an automatic rifle. After refusing to obey a traffic stop, he barricaded himself in a business, according to local media.
Still according to the French daily, which was able to examine his X account before it was suspended in the evening, in May 2020, Ryan Wesley Routh addresses Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator. Calling him a “Very smart and educated”, he offered him the position of ambassador and liaison officer “to put an end to disagreements and sanctions” affecting his country. In July 2020, during the protests in Hong Kong, he gave his contact details to accommodate opponents. In September 2020, he was interested in the persecution of political opponents by the Belarusian regime. “Do you need sniper rifles… I’m sure Amazon sells them…” So many comments that cast doubt on the credibility of Ryan Wesley Routh.
Facing Donald Trump yesterday, Ryan Wesley Routh was armed with an AK-47 rifle. Law enforcement also found the rifle, a scope, two backpacks with ceramic tiles and a GoPro camera in the bushes at the scene.