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The man suspected of planning to assassinate Donald Trump at the former president’s golf course in Florida until Secret Service agents intervened yesterday was ‘detached’ and ‘showed little emotion’ upon his arrest.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is said to have been preparing to shoot the Republican presidential nominee at the Trump International golf course in West Palm Beach when a member of his security detail spotted the barrel of a rifle poking through the chain-link fence bordering the club.
Routh – who has been charged with two federal gun charges – fled the scene when agents opened fire on his position, abandoning his rifle and other items, but was later arrested after trying to make a getaway northbound along the I-95 interstate.
Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder, who was on the scene when Routh was taken into custody roughly half an hour after he fled the links, today told how the suspect was weirdly calm as he was detained at gunpoint.
Sheriff Synder said: ‘He never asked, ”what is this about?” Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it.
‘He had a very, very kind of detached, flat face. So I felt like it wasn’t bothering him,’ he later told Fox News.
The sheriff’s comments came as President Joe Biden said the Secret Service needed more help to perform its duties after what was a second apparent assassination attempt against Trump in just over two months.
This handout image released on September 16 by the Martin County Sheriff’s Offfice shows Ryan Wesley Routh following his arrest in Martin County, Florida on September 15, 2024
Ryan Wesley Routh is seen sitting in the back of a cop car on Sunday after his arrest
The alleged gunman, registered Democrat Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, showed little emotion and remained calm when he was taken into custody
Sheriff officers are seen after apprehending Ryan Wesley Routh in Florida on Sunday
The alleged gunman was identified as registered Democrat Ryan Wesley Routh, 58 while a backpack, GoPro camera and rifle that he left behind was located at the scene
For the second time in just over two months, someone had come dangerously close to killing the 45th president of the United States
The gunman had a rifle with a scope, a GoPro camera and two backpacks hanging from a fence
Donald Trump shared his intriguing take on the ‘interesting day’ on Truth Social and praised the Secret Service and authorities for their ‘incredible job’ just hours after the assassination attempt. (pictured: Trump at his New Jersey golf course in August 2023)
The West Palm Beach Police Department was notified of shots fired by the Secret Service around 1:30pm local time yesterday after an agent spotted a would-be shooter in the bushes at Trump International Golf Club in Mar-a-Lago, West Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.
Alleged gunman Routh was hiding about 300-500 yards from the 45th president who was playing golf between holes five and six when a Secret Service noticed something out of the ordinary sticking out of the chain-link fence surrounding the golf course.
The agent, who was part of a team that stays a hole or two ahead of Trump on the course to ward off potential threats, realised it was a rifle barrel and ‘immediately engaged’, firing a volley of shots at Routh.
The would-be assassin immediately fled the scene in a car but later pulled over and surrendered to law enforcement.
Shocking pictures broadcast yesterday showed the tall, slim man standing beside a car holding his hands above his head and raising his t-shirt to show officers he was no longer armed.
CNN and CBS reported Routh was a self-employed affordable housing builder in Hawaii who had a lengthy rap sheet and regularly posted on politics and current events.
He was found to be highly critical of Trump, and a staunch supporter of Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion.
‘I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE… Can I be the example We must win,’ Routh said in an X post in March 2022.
One month after that post, Routh was interviewed in Kyiv, where he was taking part in a demonstration in support of Ukrainians trapped in the port city of Mariupol.
‘Putin is a terrorist, and he needs to be ended, so we need everybody from around the world to stop what they are doing and come here now,’ he told AFP at the time.
It was revealed today that Routh also called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to assassinate Trump in a self-published book last year.
In ‘Ukraine‘s Unwinnable War’ – a book that sets out his views on Russia’s invasion of its neighbour and charts his journey to the country in support of Kyiv – Routh said he had made a terrible mistake in once voting for Trump, whom he described as a ‘buffoon’.
‘I must take part of the blame for the ******** child we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless, but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize,’ he said in one passage after berating the former president for abandoning the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
‘You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal,’ he concluded.
The e-book is still available on Amazon for $2.99.
Routh, 58 is in custody after the terrifying incident at Trump International Club almost exactly two months after a separate assassination attempt against Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania
Routh published ‘Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment, and the Global Citizen,’ last year
Trump’s take on surviving a second assassination attempt as he praises Secret Service and cops for saving his life at Florida golf course
This comes after a bullet struck Donald Trump’s right ear during an assassination attempt on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania
Yesterday’s averted crisis comes just weeks after Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet when a gunman was able to gain access to an unsecured roof at his Pennsylvania rally in July, unleashing a hail of rounds that left one supporter dead and two others badly injured.
Trump himself took to social media shortly after the golf course was secured to praise the Secret Service and authorities for their ‘incredible job’.
‘I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes – It was certainly an interesting day!
‘Most importantly, I want to thank the US Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his Office of brave and dedicated Patriots, and, all of Law Enforcement, for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me, as the 45th President of the United States, and the Republican Nominee in the upcoming Presidential Election, SAFE.
‘THE JOB DONE WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING. I AM VERY PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!’ he concluded.
The attempted attack on the former President is sure to raise new questions about the level of protection Trump is given just weeks away from November’s presidential elections.
While the Secret Service has grappled with how to keep Trump safe as he campaigns across the country, holding rallies that often draw thousands, less attention has focused on his protection when he is off the trail, often at his own clubs and properties.
The former president had just returned to Florida from a West Coast swing that included stops in Las Vegas and Utah, and had announced on social media that he would be delivering remarks Monday from Mar-a-Lago about cryptocurrency as he launches a new crypto platform.
Trump International Golf Club, West Palm Beach, about a 10-minute drive from his Mar-a-Lago residence, is one of three golf clubs the former president owns in Florida, boasting 27 holes of championship golf as well as event spaces.
While Trump was president, news photographers were often able to capture images of him on the greens by finding gaps in the shrubbery, but Sunday’s round of golf was not part of any public schedule.
It was not clear how the suspect knew Trump was playing golf at the time, or what his motive was.
While the Secret Service has been praised for its swift action in foiling the attempted attack on the presidential nominee, Trump’s allies have said further measures must be taken to protect him, with Republicans demanding that Trump receive the same security as President Joe Biden.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House Republican Conference chair and a close ally of the former president, said she was grateful Trump was safe.
‘However, we must ask ourselves how an assassin was allowed to get this close to President Trump again?’ she asked in a statement.
