In the photo he is smiling. This Sunday afternoon, Ryan Wesley Routh almost seems to be posing when he is stopped yesterday on Interstate 95, the highway where he was driving north, in his black Nissan SUV. “He was driving quietly, following the flow of traffic, without being noticed, which was smart of him,” testifies Sheriff William Snyder, who oversaw the arrest of the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump. “He could not have known that he had been seen by a witness who had taken a photo of his car and his license plate, which was really lucky for us. He may have thought he was going to get away with it…” But at the time of the arrest, “he was so calm that he gave me the impression of a guy who had just come back from a picnic and was going home. There were about thirty law enforcement units around him, a helicopter, dogs, and the highway was blocked…”
Ryan Wesley Routh was a passionate adventurer who posted a lot on his X accounts (where he had nearly 3,000 followers), Facebook and Instagram, all of which are now deactivated. He also wrote a 291-page self-authored book still available on Amazon for $2.99, called “Ukraine's Unwinnable War.” In this unreadable book, full of gruesome photos of mutilated children, he presents himself as a fighter for the independence of Ukraine, where he went in the summer of 2022 to join the “International Volunteer Center.”
His goal: to recruit foreign soldiers online, including Afghans who fled the Taliban. He has faced opposition from local authorities and blames President Zelensky for not letting him do so. Routh also recounts that he tried to set up a drone-building workshop in Kiev. Finally, he delivers his geopolitical thoughts on democracy, Taiwan (which he supports in the face of Chinese territorial ambitions), North Korea and what he calls “World War III and the end of humanity.”
In his book, Ryan Routh apologizes for voting for Trump
In this abstruse “What I Believe,” on page 279 he salutes John Kerry, Barack Obama’s Secretary of State who brokered the 2015 Vienna nuclear deal with Iran, from which America withdrew in 2018 at the behest of Donald Trump. He also apologizes for voting for the latter in 2016: “I take my share of responsibility for the retarded child we elected who turned out to be brainless. But I am man enough (sic) to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and I apologize to Iran. You are free to assassinate Trump and me for that misjudgement and the dismantling of the deal.” It seems that he himself took action yesterday, attempting to shoot the former president and then allowing himself to be arrested without resistance by the police.
The police are currently investigating the suspect's motives, but his background is complicated. Not politically affiliated according to the Associated Press, he had become resolutely anti-Trumpist. He made several donations in 2019-2020 in favor of Joe Biden. During the Republican primary in early 2024, he supported Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy on his networks, two Republican candidates rivaling the former president. But recently, he showed his support for Kamala Harris as evidenced by the “Biden-Harris” sticker stuck to the back of his vehicle, a Ford pickup, parked in front of his house in Kaawa, Hawaii.
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Did he act alone or with the help of an accomplice?
Ryan Routh had lived there with his partner since 2018. He was a construction worker and had started a small business specializing in the construction and maintenance of roofs. His neighbors had seen many weapons in his home, without complaining. He had eight convictions, including one for “possession of weapons of mass destruction” (an automatic rifle) in 2002 after barricading himself for three hours before surrendering. Ryan Routh, the father of a 25-year-old son, has spent most of his life in North Carolina.
This detail intrigues the police, who note that he did not come from West Palm Beach, where the Trump International Golf Club is located. How did he know that Donald Trump was there yesterday, precisely between holes 5 and 6, located near the boulevard where he positioned himself to try to assassinate him? Did he act alone or with the help of an accomplice?
On Monday morning, Ryan Routh appeared in prison garb and shackled in a courtroom in West Palm Beach federal court. According to witnesses, he was smiling (again) as he spoke to his court-appointed lawyer. He is currently facing two charges, one for illegal possession of a firearm and the other for attempting to hide the serial number of the AK 47 rifle he allegedly used to try to kill the former president. According to the indictment, his cell phone revealed that he had been there, near the golf club, since 1:59 a.m. Sunday. So he waited for Donald Trump for nearly twelve hours before attempting to assassinate him…
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