The man identified as the suspect in a potential assassination attempt near Donald Trump's Florida golf club on Sunday had previously shared a video of himself in Ukraine in 2022, where he was working to recruit foreign fighters.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, said that he had helped in organizing soldiers for the International Legion, Ukraine's unit for foreign volunteers, and was eager to participate in the conflict, fully aware that he might not make it back home. "I am willing to fly to Krakow and go to the border of Ukraine to volunteer and fight and die," Routh wrote on X weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Voice of Assassin
Realizing that he was too old to fight on the front lines, Routh focused on recruiting Afghan soldiers who were fleeing the Taliban to join the fight in Ukraine, as he mentioned in a 2023 interview with The New York Times.
A former construction worker from Greensboro, North Carolina, Routh spent several months in Ukraine during 2022.
In video footage shared online, Routh explained his reasons for traveling to the conflict-ridden country to those curious about his role.
"Most wonder what I'm doing in Ukraine. This is a center to help people when they come from other countries have a location, someone to talk to as a greeting committee to get them in the location they need to be," he said while wearing a stars and stripes kerchief around his neck.
"We're helping foreigners be as useful as possible, to maximize their potential. Everyone here is self-funded. Everyone is struggling with money to be fuel. Any support would be tremendously appreciated," he pleaded.
Routh, who had no military background, detailed his strategy for recruiting fighters, which involved moving Afghan soldiers—sometimes illegally—from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said at the time that dozens had shown interest.
"We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it's such a corrupt country," he said in during an interview at the time.
Writing on the messaging app Signal, Routh said: "Civilians must change this war and prevent future wars" as part of his profile bio.
Soon after the conflict started, Routh sent a message to Elon Musk on X, saying: "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."
Aligned Toward Ukraine
Routh was so committed to Ukraine's war effort that he even helped trim the grass at Independence Square in Kyiv with scissors.
In an interview with Newsweek Romania, Routh described the conflict with Russia as a straightforward battle between good and evil.
"The question as far as why I'm here -- to me, a lot of the other conflicts are grey, but this conflict is definitely black and white," Routh said.
"This is about good versus evil. This is a storybook, you know, any movie we've ever watched, this is definitely evil against good.
We need thousands and thousands and thousands of people here fighting with Ukrainians," he added.
It is unclear how successful Routh was in his recruitment efforts, but at least one former Afghan soldier told The Times that he had been approached by Routh and showed interest in fighting if it offered a way out of Iran.
Secret Service agents spotted Routh near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach carrying a Soviet-style SKS assault rifle. The agents fired at him, but he managed to escape. Routh was subsequently arrested by local police on I-95.
According to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, an agent fired at the gunman, who then dropped the rifle and escaped in an SUV, leaving behind the firearm, two backpacks, a scope, and a GoPro camera.
The suspect was eventually arrested by law enforcement in a nearby county.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder reported that the man remained calm and unemotional during the stop and did not question the reason for being pulled over. "He never asked, 'what is this about?´ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it," Snyder said.
As of now, Routh has not been charged in connection with the alleged assassination attempt on Trump at the Republican's golf club in Florida.
