Former President Trump survived a second assassination attempt in just two months over the weekend after the U.S. Secret Service opened fire on an armed man near a fence as the billionaire candidate golfed in Florida.
Police recovered an SKS rifle that the suspect allegedly aimed through a fence at the edge of the course.
But as additional details about the suspect emerge, he appears to be a radical activist incensed by geopolitical conflict and a repeat offender with a violent felony conviction to match his ideological online posts, which are under investigation by the FBI.
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In the years before his arrest on Sunday, suspect Ryan Wesley Routh had dozens of run-ins with the law and was outspoken on political issues, particularly the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Â
Based on information from federal and local law enforcement, here’s a timeline of the final hours of his plot.
1:59 a.m.: Suspect Ryan Wesley Routh arrived in the “vicinity,” according to court documents. Federal prosecutors allege that phone pings showed him in the tree line at the edge of the golf course for nearly 12 hours, leaving after Secret Service agents saw him and opened fire in the early afternoon.
1:30 p.m. ET: Dispatchers in Palm Beach County received reports of shots fired at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach as the former president was playing a round.
A Secret Service agent sweeping the area several hundred yards ahead of the former president spotted a man aiming an SKS rifle through the fence and opened fire. The suspect fled in a Nissan SUV and left behind two bags, a camera and the rifle.
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2:14 p.m.: Deputies from both the Palm Beach and Martin County sheriff’s offices stopped the suspect’s vehicle on Interstate 95, according to court documents.
Routh was the only one inside, and when asked if he knew why he was being pulled over, he allegedly “responded in the affirmative.” Deputies noted that the license plate on Routh’s Nissan allegedly belonged to a stolen Ford truck.
2:23 p.m.: The Trump campaign issued a statement acknowledging the incident.
“President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity,” wrote Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director. “No further details at this time.”
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5:30 p.m.: Federal law enforcement sources identified 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh as the suspect in custody.
Records show Routh has had dozens of run-ins with the law over the years, including a 2002 standoff with police in North Carolina in which he fled a traffic stop and barricaded himself inside the office of his roofing business in the middle of the night for three hours, according to the Greensboro News and Record.
He was later convicted of possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction, making him unable to lawfully own guns. The weapon was a homemade bomb with a 10-inch detonation cord and blasting cap, according to authorities.Â
11 a.m.: Routh made his first appearance in federal court wearing a jail jumpsuit and shackles. He shared a few laughs with his court-appointed attorney before the start of the 10-minute hearing in which he appeared attentive and answered all the judge’s questions.
During a news briefing Monday afternoon, the FBI revealed that agents had obtained warrants for Routh’s devices recovered at the scene and at known prior addresses.
They interviewed at least seven witnesses at the scene, and Routh invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and asked for a lawyer, FBI Miami Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri said.
He also said that in 2019 a tipster reported that Routh might be a felon unlawfully in possession of a firearm in Hawaii. The complainant was interviewed, but they did not verify the information. Routh was not interviewed by the FBI, which forwarded details to Honolulu authorities.
Prior to Sunday’s failed assassination attempt, the suspect’s online statements and an apparent self-published book paint him as a radical who condemned the former president and other targets, including Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
News photos and articles show he visited Ukraine in 2022 and at least talked about aiding in the country’s defense. He wore shirts and carried signs emblazoned with political messages.Â
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In one photo, taken by a Reuters photographer on May 3, 2022, he attended a rally calling for international help with evacuating Ukrainian soldiers and civilians from Mariupol, a Ukrainian city in the Donetsk Oblast region, carrying a sign reading, “World Help Us.”
May 17, 2022: He attended a rally in Kyiv calling on China to assist besieged Ukrainian soldiers in the city of Mariupol. And on May 29, he was photographed at another Kyiv rally, kneeling next to a field of blue and yellow flags.
In a 2023 interview with the global news site Semafor, he claimed to have spent about five months in Ukraine trying to recruit foreign fighters, including U.S.-trained Afghan nationals. In the same article, Ukrainian officials warned he was “a bit over the top.”
In his self-published book on the topic, “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” Routh apparently wrote in a passage directed toward Iran, “You are free to assassinate Trump,” the Associated Press reported Monday.
Routh also posted frequently about U.S. politics, explaining that he was once a Trump voter but had changed his mind.
“I was not supporting Bernie, but now I am; as sleepy Joe stands for nothing; no plans, no ideas, just as limp as hillary. Bernie…….give them hell…..fight to the death…,” he appears to have written during the 2020 presidential primaries.
Veltri said his posts were under investigation.
By Monday, the account was suspended, but not before Fox News Digital examined many of his missives. He openly appealed to accounts with large followings for help in building support for Ukraine and other causes, sometimes violently.
When Russia-allied Belarus was going through political turmoil in 2020, he asked citizens there, “Do you not have guns?”Â
“I would never let anyone put any of mine (sic) friends in a van,” he wrote. “There would be bloodshed and lots.”
Then he suggested they buy “sniper rifles” on Amazon, although the site’s policies do not allow for firearm sales.
He also tagged Trump, Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders in June 2020 and asked for a federal agency with oversight powers over state and local police departments after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
His posts could also be incendiary. He called on Ukrainian forces to press on “until [P]utin is dead and Moscow is a pile of rubble.” He asked Elon Musk to sell him a rocket to achieve that end.
“While you were my choice in 2106, I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointed, and it seems you are getting worse and devolving; are you retar—; I will be glad when you gone,” he posted on June 11, 2020.
He also called on journalists, celebrities and politicians to amplify his calls for action.
Routh is due back in court this month in the Trump case.
Fox News’ Heather Lacy, Audrey Conklin and Mollie Markowitz contributed to this report.
