By Michael R. Sisak and Bernard Condon
Kaaawa, Hawaii: Ryan Wesley Routh portrayed himself online as a man who built housing for homeless people in Hawaii, tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, and described his support and then disdain for Donald Trump – even urging Iran to kill him.
“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in an apparently self-published book in 2023, Ukraine’s Unwinnable War, which described the former president as a “fool” and “buffoon” for both the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the “tremendous blunder” of leaving the Iran nuclear deal.
Ryan Wesley Routh takes part in a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine in 2022.Credit: AP
Routh wrote that he once voted for Trump and must take part of the blame for the “child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless”.
Routh, 58, was arrested Sunday and charged Monday after authorities say he stalked the GOP presidential nominee while playing golf in West Palm Beach, Florida, with an AK-47-style rifle in an apparent assassination attempt thwarted by the Secret Service.
Through his voluminous online footprint, public records, news interviews and videos, a picture emerged of Routh as a man with a criminal past, plenty of outrage and views ranging from the left to the right, including support for Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, Nikki Haley and Trump.
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Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently voting in person during the state’s Democratic primary in March.
Routh also made 19 small donations totaling $US140 since 2019 to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates, according to federal campaign finance records.
In a tweet in June 2020, after the police killing of George Floyd, Routh said then-president Trump could win reelection by issuing an executive order to prosecute police misconduct. However, in recent years, his posts appear to have soured on Trump, and he expressed support for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
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“DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose,” he wrote on X in April in support of Biden.
In July, following the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, a post on Routh’s account urged Biden and Harris to visit those wounded in the shooting and attend the funeral of the firefighter who was killed.
“Trump will never do anything for them,” Routh wrote.
In his book, listed on Amazon and viewed by the AP, Routh noted: “I get so tired of people asking me if I am a Democrat or Republican as I refuse to be put in a category.”
Earlier this year, he tweeted at singers Bruno Mars and Dave Matthews to organise a We Are the World-style effort for Kyiv. “We need an emotional tribute song for Ukraine as support stalls,” he wrote. “I have lyrics and music.”
Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.Credit: AP
Routh also tweeted to former basketball star Dennis Rodman, asking for help lifting sanctions against North Korea to ease tension with the country. In another, he invites a dozen protesters in Hong Kong to stay at his Hawaii home to escape a Chinese crackdown.
The assassination attempt happened on Sunday afternoon at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when Secret Service agents spotted Routh concealed in the bushes and holding a rifle while Trump was on the course.
According to cellphone data, his phone was “in the vicinity of the area along the tree line” of the course from 1.59am on Sunday – about 12 hours before the incident. This is significant as it suggests that authorities may have failed to detect him in earlier sweeps of the perimeter.
Law enforcement officials work outside of the Trump International Golf Club after the apparent assassination attempt.Credit: AP
After seeing Routh’s rifle poking out of the bushes around 1.30pm on Sunday, an agent fired several shots, forcing him to drop his rifle and flee the scene in an SUV.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said on Monday that Routh did not manage to fire any shots.
With Farrah Tomazin
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