The suspected gunman in an attempted assassination of former President Trump has been charged with federal gun crimes, according to the Associated Press.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach on Monday, shackled and in a blue jumpsuit.
He is accused of possessing a firearm despite being a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, the Associated Press reported.
He allegedly pushed the muzzle of a rifle through the perimeter of Trump’s Florida golf course while the former president was playing, prompting a Secret Service agent to fire.
The incident, which the FBI is investigating as an apparent assassination attempt, marked the second attempt on Trump’s life this year.
Additional and more serious charges against Routh are possible as investigators continue to examine the incident.
Here is what we know about the suspect in the apparent assassination attempt.
Voting record and criminal history
Routh has been registered to vote in North Carolina since 2012, according to state records, and he voted in the Democratic primary earlier this year. Federal Election Commission records show he donated multiple times in 2019 and 2020 to various Democratic presidential candidates through ActBlue, the fundraising platform used by Democrats.
Routh appears to have been a one-time Trump supporter, writing on X that “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,” according to CNN. “I will be glad when you gone.”
His X account has since been suspended.
His criminal record in North Carolina shows various charges, including one in 2002 for possession of a weapon of mass destruction after he barricaded himself in a business during a three-hour standoff with police. Officers arrested Routh in December 2002 after the standoff and found him with a fully automatic machine gun, according to a report from the News and Record at the time.
Tracy Fulk, the charging officer in the 2002 incident, told Wired on Sunday that he “figured [Routh] was either dead or in prison by now.”
“I had no clue that he had moved on and was continuing his escapades,” Fulk told the outlet.
Comments about Trump
Routh implied in a June 2020 post on X that he had voted for Trump in 2016 but said he would be “glad when you gone,” according to CBS News.
The suspected would-be assassin posted on X after the first assassination attempt on Trump in July that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris should “visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered fireman,” arguing that “Trump will never do anything for them,” according to CNN.
Biden’s campaign should be “called something like KADAF,” Routh posted on the platform in April, according to CNN. “Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.” Biden and Harris have frequently argued that “democracy is on the ballot” in November.
Besides his comments online about Trump, Routh’s X account had other seemingly contradictory posts considering his actions on Sunday.
“Killing anywhere is extremely tragic,” he said in one recent post.
Strong stance on war in Ukraine
Routh’s most vocal effort has been his support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, which began after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
He was pushing for Afghan soldiers, who fled after the Taliban took control of the country in 2021, to fight in Ukraine, even as the Ukrainian government rejected fighters from Middle Eastern countries. Routh was interviewed and included in stories from the New York Times and Semafor in 2023.
Semafor described Routh’s support for Ukraine as “a bit over the top” in a story published Sunday recalling the 2023 report, and in a 2022 post on X, he said that “we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground.”
“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, according to CNN.
Routh did visit Ukraine in 2022 after the war broke out.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the assassination attempt on Trump, and said that “political violence has no place anywhere in the world.”
“I am glad to hear that @realDonaldTrump is safe and unharmed,” Zelensky said Monday in a post on X. “My best wishes to him and his family. It’s good that the suspect in the assassination attempt was apprehended quickly. This is our principle: the rule of law is paramount and political violence has no place anywhere in the world. We sincerely hope that everyone remains safe.”
How he was caught
Routh was hiding in bushes along the golf course Sunday with an “AK-47 style rifle with a scope,” a GoPro camera, and two backpacks with ceramic tile, according to law enforcement officials.
He was 400-500 yards from Trump before a Secret Service agent who was stationed one hole ahead of the former president on the course noticed a gun barrel sticking out of the bushes. The agent engaged with Routh, causing the suspect to flee, according to authorities.
Routh fled the scene by car but was spotted by a witness, and authorities arrested him on I-95 in Martin County.
Charges have not been filed against Routh as of Monday morning, but the state attorney for Palm Beach County said Sunday that the suspect would be charged in state court and could receive federal charges as well.
The assassination attempt on Trump is the second one this year. The former president was shot in the ear during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attempt on Trump’s life two months ago left him injured, and the shots fired killed one rally attendee. The gunman in the Bulter assassination attempt was killed by law enforcement agents shortly after he opened fire.
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