Trump assassination attempt: Who is suspect Ryan Routh?

Pro-Ukraine activist arrested after apparently trying to kill former president

Ryan Wesley Routh is identified by US news organisations as a suspect in an apparent attempt on the life of presidential candidate Donald Trump on a golf course in Florida. Reuters

The home of Ryan Routh in Kaaawa, Hawaii. AP

Secret Service and Homeland Security agents check a former home of a suspect named by news organisations as Ryan W Routh. Reuters

Law enforcement officers investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club after an apparent assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald Trump as he played golf on Sunday. AFP

Bags hang from a fence over a rifle propped against it, after the Secret Service foiled what the FBI says was an apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Reuters

Law enforcement officers investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club in Florida. AFP

Supporters of former US President Donald Trump wave flags near his Palm Beach residence in Palm Beach following reports of an attempted shooting. AFP

A sheriff blocks a street outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, following an incident. AFP

The suspect in an apparent attempted shooting of former US president Donald Trump is a pro-Ukraine activist who allegedly sought to recruit volunteers to fight against Russia.

Ryan Routh has been widely identified in US media and details have emerged of a man who seemingly turned against the Republican candidate, having once supported him.

The 58-year-old is a roofing contractor who lived in North Carolina until 2018, when he moved to Hawaii, reports said. CNN reported that he has eight arrests on his record, apparently for minor offences.

He frequently posted on social media about the war in Ukraine and had a website where he sought to raise money and recruit volunteers to go to Kyiv to join the fight against the Russian invasion. He told The New York Times in March last year that he was seeking recruits to fight in Ukraine from Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban.

AFP spoke to Mr Routh in Kyiv in late April 2022 while he was taking part in a demonstration in support of Ukrainians trapped in the port city of Mariupol.

“[Russian President Vladimir] 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 said at the time.

On April 21, he directed an X message to Elon Musk, in which he wrote: “I would like to buy a rocket from you. I wish to load it with a warhead for Putin's Black Sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please.”

Voter records show Mr Routh registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently casting his ballot in person during the state’s Democratic Party primary in March. Federal campaign finance records show that he made 19 donations of a total of $140 since 2019 using his Hawaii address to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.

While living in Greensboro, North Carolina, Mr Routh had multiple run-ins with police, records show. He was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records.

The records do not provide details about the case. But a report that year in Greensboro's News & Record newspaper says a man with the same name was arrested after a three-hour standoff with police. The report said he was pulled over during a traffic stop, put his hand on a gun and barricaded himself inside a roofing business. He owned the roofing company, according to state incorporation filings.

In June 2020, Mr Routh posted a message on X to tell Mr Trump he would win re-election if he issued an executive order for the Justice Department to prosecute police misconduct.

That year, he also posted in support of the Democratic presidential campaign of Tulsi Gabbard, then a member of Congress representing Hawaii, who has since left the party. He also posted in support of Bernie Sanders, another Democratic candidate, while mocking now-President Joe Biden, as “sleepy Joe”.

Mr Routh's social media posts suggest growing disillusionment with Mr Trump in recent years, while expressing support for Mr Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Earlier this year, he tagged Mr Biden in a post on X that said: “Your 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.”

The suspected gunman's son, Adam, spoke to Reuters at the hardware store where he works in Hawaii. He said he had not yet heard of the assassination attempt but said it was not something he believed his father would do.

Another son, Oran, told CNN: “I don't have any comment beyond a character profile of him as a loving and caring father … I don't know what's happened in Florida and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion.”