Who Is Ryan Routh? What You Need to Know About the Trump Golf Course Incident Suspect

Updated September 17, 2024 at 10:28 a.m. ET

The man arrested in what the FBI is calling an apparent attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump has a long criminal record and a recent fixation on global politics, particularly Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The suspect, who local authorities identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, was taken into custody Sunday afternoon on Interstate 95 near West Palm Beach, Florida, after what authorities say was a possible assassination attempt on Trump at his golf club — the second attack in the past nine weeks.

The Secret Service said an agent stationed a hole in front of Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach spotted a rifle sticking out of a fence. The suspect holding the rifle was hiding in the bushes about 300 to 500 yards from the Republican presidential candidate.

The officer opened fire on Routh, but he fled in a black Nissan, which authorities found on the highway a short time later, thanks to an eyewitness. He left behind the loaded rifle with a scope, as well as a digital camera, a backpack and a plastic bag containing food, according to the unsealed criminal complaint.

Routh did not fire his weapon and did not have Trump in his “crosshairs,” acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said Monday. The complaint cites cellphone data that suggests Routh was “in the vicinity” of the golf course for about 12 hours, from 1:59 a.m. ET to about 1:31 p.m. ET, when the agent noticed the rifle through the fence.

Authorities aren’t sure how long Routh, a longtime North Carolina resident who most recently lived in Hawaii, had been in Florida. They believe he acted alone.

Routh was charged with possession of a firearm as a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

At his first appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach Monday morning, Routh, dressed in a navy blue jail jumpsuit and handcuffs, appeared calm, respectful and in good spirits. He could be seen laughing at times with his federal public defender.

The judge told Routh he was entitled to a federal court-appointed attorney because he had “little or no assets.” Routh said he had no funds and no savings, and said he earned $3,000 a week, but did not specify the source. He said he owned two trucks in Hawaii and helped support his 25-year-old son.

Routh will remain in custody until his court appearance on September 30.

Public documents, a self-published book and past interviews have painted a picture of the 58-year-old as a Trump supporter-turned-critic who was passionate about defending Ukraine in its war against Russia and even traveled there hoping to take part in the fight.

Here’s what we know about him so far.

He has a criminal record that goes back decades

Routh spent most of his adult life in North Carolina, before moving to Hawaii in recent years.

His LinkedIn page says he studied mechanical engineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University from 1995 to 1998. But the university told NPR via email that Routh “only attended two semesters nearly 30 years ago.”

“He did not graduate from the university and last enrolled in December 1995,” wrote media relations director Jackie Torok.

Routh has been hailed as a “super citizen, even a superhero” by the Greensboro News and Archives in 1991 after fighting off an alleged rapist and helping to arrest him – earning him an Oscar-like “Law Enforcement Award” from the Greensboro chapter of the International Union of Police Associations.

But records from the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections show that Routh himself has a long history of trouble with the law, including a 2002 conviction for possession of a weapon of mass destruction.

A December 2002 article in the Greensboro News and Archives The newspaper reports an incident in which Routh was arrested during a traffic stop on a Sunday night. He “put his hand on a firearm” and drove to his roofing business, where he barricaded himself inside for three hours. The weapons of mass destruction charge involved a “fully automatic machine gun,” the newspaper reported.

Jeffrey Veltry, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami office, told reporters Monday that Routh was the subject of a tip in 2019 to the FBI accusing him of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He said the agency investigated the tip, but the person who allegedly filed the complaint was unable to verify the initial tip.

Routh was charged with several other misdemeanors and felonies between 2001 and 2010, including hit and run, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of stolen property.

Separately, North Carolina court records list Routh as a defendant in more than a half-dozen court cases between 1991 and 2016, including tax delinquency and bad checks.

Routh wrote on his LinkedIn page that he had “passed on the meager remains of myself in North Carolina and moved to Oahu.” He has lived and worked in Hawaii since 2018, according to the Honolulu’s Featured Announcerwho cites public documents.

The newspaper cites “law enforcement sources” as saying that Honolulu police have recordings of four interactions with Routh: two in 2019 — including an incident where he and two others allegedly squatted on a property — and two more in 2021, when Routh reported being assaulted by a resident whose home he was working in as a handyman.

Routh describes himself as the owner of Camp Box Honolulu, a company that builds portable storage units and tiny homes.

“We cannot sit back, as some of our friends and neighbors around us do, when we ourselves are smart enough to create our own solutions to our own problems,” the company’s website states. “By using common sense, American ingenuity, and the resources at our disposal, together we can create our own happy places.”

He once supported Trump but recently donated to Democrats

North Carolina voting records indicate that Routh is not affiliated with any party, though they also show that he voted in person in the March 2024 Democratic primary election.

He is also listed as having voted in the 2008 and 2012 general elections, as well as the 2009 municipal elections.

Routh has a history of donating to political causes, Federal Election Commission filings show. He donated to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue nearly 20 times — in amounts ranging from $1 to $25 — between September 2019 and March 2020.

In a 2023 self-published book, Routh referenced his former support for Trump, writing that he must take some responsibility for Trump’s election as president, “but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake.”

In the book, he calls the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection “a catastrophe… perpetrated by Donald Trump and his anti-democratic gang.”

Routh’s 291-page book, The Unwinnable War in Ukraine: Democracy’s Fatal Flaw, World Abandonment, and the Global Citizen – Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, World War III, and the End of Humanitycovers a topic that seems to have preoccupied Routh in recent years.

Routh is a staunch supporter of Ukraine’s defense

Routh expressed strong support for Ukraine in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, and he was tasked with bringing foreigners — including himself — to the front lines.

His goal was to “fight for freedom and human rights,” he writes in his book.

Routh traveled to the Ukrainian capital kyiv that year, but was told that — given his age and lack of military experience — he was “not an ideal candidate,” as he put it. Newsweek Romania in 2022.

“So Plan B was to come here to kyiv and promote the arrival of more people here,” he said.

Since then, he has used social media to encourage and attempt to recruit foreigners to fight in Ukraine, and he has spoken about these efforts in media interviews.

Routh said The New York Times In March 2023, he was seeking recruits among Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban, with the aim of buying passports through Pakistan (“because it’s such a corrupt country”) and smuggling them – in some cases illegally – into Ukraine from Pakistan and Iran. Times described Routh as a “former construction worker from Greensboro, North Carolina … who spent several months in Ukraine last year.”

That same month, he complained to Semafor about the lack of support from the Ukrainian government, saying it was too rigid about admitting foreign soldiers, particularly from Afghanistan, for fear they were Russian spies.

“I have been meeting weekly with partners (in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry) and I still have not been able to convince them to agree to issue a single visa,” said Routh, who was identified by Semafor as the director of the International Volunteer Center in Ukraine – “a private organization that helps foreigners seeking to participate in the war effort connect with military units and aid groups.”

A representative of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion told CNN that Routh had contacted him several times online but “was never part of the legion and did not cooperate with us in any way.”

“The best way to describe his messages is to say that these are delusions,” said Oleksandr Shaguri, an officer of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Land Forces Command. “He offered us a large number of recruits from different countries, but it was obvious to us that his offers were unrealistic. We did not even respond, there was nothing to complain about.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday condemned the apparent assassination attempt on Trump in a message posted on X-rated social media, saying that “political violence has no place anywhere in the world.”

Asked about Monday’s incident, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it showed that “playing with fire” has consequences – an apparent reference to U.S. support for Ukraine.

Routh’s family defended him

One of Routh’s sons, Adam, told Reuters immediately after the incident that he did not think his father would do this.

Another, Oran, told CNN that it was not his father’s habit “to do anything crazy, let alone violent.”

Copyright 2024 NPR