Ryan Routh: What we know about Trump assassination attempt suspect

The suspect in an apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump is a staunch supporter of Ukraine who was rejected by the country’s armed forces and failed to make much of a contribution to the war effort.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who appeared in court on Monday, is from North Carolina and spent most of his life there, but most recently lived in Hawaii.

He voted for Trump in 2016 but later turned against him, and made statements of support and contributions to other politicians.

Here are some of the other things we know about him.

He is suspected of going to the Trump International Golf Course in Florida on Sunday, armed with an SKS-style rifle. The FBI recovered the weapon and scope, two backpacks and a GoPro camera from an area heavy with bush cover.

Law enforcement allege that Routh fled the area when a Secret Service agent fired in his direction after spotting a rifle barrel poking out of the bushes.

He is not believed to have fired his own weapon during the incident, and is not believed to have had a clear line of sight to Trump at any point.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said two officers spotted Routh’s vehicle, a black Nissan, and followed it for 45 minutes.

Routh was stopped on Interstate 95, a major highway, and arrested.

He has been initially charged with federal firearms offences. The affidavit states that Routh’s phone was in the “vicinity” of the covered area for 12 hours.

The car, a Nissan SUV, was later determined to have number plates which belonged to a 2012 Ford which had been reported as stolen.

BBC Verify found a number of social media profiles matching Routh’s name.

Routh repeatedly touted his work in encouraging foreign fighters to go to Ukraine to battle against Russia.

However, most of his organising appears to have happened while he was in the US, not in Ukraine, where in 2022 he was rejected by the country’s International Legion due to his lack of combat experience.

The FBI is still investigating his links to Ukraine and has sent out multiple requests to companies for returns on his phone and social media accounts.

There are also pro-Palestinian, pro-Taiwan and anti-China messages on his profile, including allegations about Chinese “biological warfare” and references to the Covid-19 virus as an “attack”.

On an X post from 2020, Routh suggested he voted for Trump in 2016 but became disillusioned, writing: “I will be glad when you [are] gone.”

Routh also posted online urging President Joe Biden and Vice-President Harris to meet victims of the attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.

Routh was registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina, but appears to have voted in the most recent Democratic primary in March, according to state records.

In 2019 and 2020, he gave a number of small donations totalling around $140 (£106) to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising organisation, according to online federal elections records.

An Associated Press photo of a truck outside Routh’s Hawaii home displayed a Biden-Harris campaign sticker on the back.

In the past Routh also backed candidates such as Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat who has since left the party and swung behind Trump, and also declared his support for former Republican presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.

Routh described himself as a “volunteer co-ordinator” and his ambitions to join combat were not realised.

The International Legion told the BBC that Routh had “never been part of, associated with, or linked” with the legion … in any capacity”.

A volunteer for the legion described Routh to the BBC as a chaotic presence who kept trying to “sneak around” officials and was “doing more harm than good”.

The volunteer said that Routh was in Ukraine in April 2022.

“He was not part of any unit and his activities were essentially causing chaos,” the volunteer said.

“He was also trying to pose as some sort of official entity for all volunteers, which, again, he was not,” she said.

Routh told The New York Times in 2023 that he wanted to recruit Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban.

One Facebook post from July of this year read: “Soldiers, please do not call me. We are still trying to get Ukraine to accept Afghan soldiers and hope to have some answers in the coming months… please have patience.”

In a book self-published in February 2023, Routh grumbled about how his efforts were received in Ukraine. “I have yet to see… the smallest amount of appreciation or respect,” he wrote.

In the book, Routh said he spent five months in Ukraine and worked on various projects including a drone-building programme. He claims his efforts ended in failure or were shut down by the authorities.

The book also contains a passage where he encourages Iranian officials, that they were “free to assassinate Trump”.

Records show Routh’s legal issues go back to the 1990s, including a variety of felonies and misdemeanours, including numerous charges for stolen goods.

He was charged and convicted of numerous felony offences in Guilford County in North Carolina between 2002 and 2010, according to online records.

In 2002, he was charged for possession of a fully automatic machine gun, which was referred to in court filings as a “weapon of mass destruction”.

A local newspaper report from the time noted that he barricaded himself in a business and had a three-hour stand-off with police officers in the town of Greensboro before being taken into custody.

In another incident, records show him being charged with misdemeanours including a hit-and-run, resisting arrest, and a concealed weapons violation.

His alleged offences also include driving with a revoked licence and possession of stolen property.

In 2019, the FBI also received a tip that Routh was a felon in possession of a firearm. The unverified tip was passed on to local law enforcement in Honolulu.

Former neighbour Kim Mungo describes Routh as a “sweetheart” and said federal agents once raided Routh’s property.

She alleged that he used to keep “loads of stolen property and stuff” at his home, and said she saw Routh and his family firing guns in the open.

Routh’s eldest son, Oran, described his father as “a loving and caring father, and honest hardworking man”.

He told CNN: “I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent.”

Friends and family members are being sought for interviews by the FBI, including in North Carolina and Hawaii.

Routh appeared in front of a judge on Monday at the Palm Beach County court near Mar-a-Lago, charged with firearms offences.

The charges against him did not include any references to trying to kill Trump, though the FBI has said it is investigating Sunday’s incident as an assassination attempt.

Law enforcement stated after the court appearance that the suspect did not fire a weapon and did not have a line of sight on Trump.

Secret Service and Homeland Security agents have searched Routh’s former home in Greensboro, North Carolina.

A hearing is scheduled for next Monday to determine whether he should remain in custody. Prosecutors say he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.