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The suspect arrested over the latest apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump used to be a supporter of the former president back in 2016 – but has become highly critical of him of late, his social media accounts reveal.
Ryan Wesley Routh, a 58-year-old with links to North Carolina and Hawaii, was taken into custody on Sunday after being identified by federal officials as the suspect, who was allegedly aimed a powerful AK-47-style assault rifle through the bushes at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
While the motive for the alleged attack remains unclear, new details about Routh are emerging – with his social media accounts shining some light on his political beliefs.
On his X account, which has since been taken down, Routh was vocal about politics and the war in Ukraine.
Posts suggest that he was once a Republican supporter who voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but turned his back on him after being “greatly disappointed.”
Routh added he would be “glad” when Trump was “gone”.
“While you were my choice in 2106 [sic], I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving,” Routh wrote in July 2020. “I will be glad when you gone.”
He appears to have grown more critical of Trump and more supportive of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
In another post in April this year, he tagged Biden’s presidential account and said the campaign should be “called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
Routh also often posted about the war in Ukraine and traveled to the nation in 2022 to recruit ex-Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to fight, according to the New York Times.
“I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE,” he wrote on X following the Russian invasion in early 2022.
In another social media post he wrote: “I am willing to go and fight and DIE to beat Putin.” And in an interview with Newsweek Romania about the war in Ukraine, he said: “This is about good versus evil.”
Routh has a criminal record dating back to at least 2002, when he was convicted in Guilford County, North Carolina, on one felony count of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, according to a review of state court records.
The Greensboro News & Record reported at the time that a man by the same name and the same age as Routh had fled from police during a traffic stop and holed up inside local business United Roofing, triggering a three-hour standoff.
The weapon of mass destruction charge was brought against Routh over a fully-automatic machine gun he had, according to the News & record.
On Sunday afternoon, Trump had been playing a round of golf at his golf course and was a mere 300 to 500 yards from the suspect, authorities said.
At around 1.30pm, Secret Service agents spotted the butt of the gun through the fence and fired shots toward the suspect, West Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said in a press conference on Sunday afternoon.
Routh allegedly fled the scene, with a witness taking a photo and noting the license plate of his black Nissan SUV, authorities said.
Officers from the Martin County Sheriff’s office in Florida, based near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, tracked down the his vehicle on the I-95 and took him into custody.
The suspect allegedly left several items behind at the golf club fence: an AK-47 with a scope, two backpacks with ceramic tile inside, and a GoPro video camera which he allegedly aimed to use to film the incident, authorities said.
The motive for the alleged attack also remains unclear but the FBI is treating it as an “attempted assassination,” the bureau said in a statement.
The incident marks the second apparent assassination attempt on Trump’s life in just two months – after a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
