ReutersThe suspect who has been arrested
NOS News•Monday, 07:17•Modified Monday, 10:11
In American media, more and more is becoming clear about the suspect who is being held on suspicion of wanting to commit an attack on Donald Trump. It concerns Ryan Wesley Routh, a 58-year-old man who is said to live in Hawaii. On social media, he has been critical of Trump in recent months.
He seems concerned about the fate of Ukraine. The New York Times spoke to him last year. Routh said he was recruiting Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban to fight Russia in Ukraine. “I’m just an American citizen who wants to help.” Routh said he spent some time in Ukraine himself, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Routh, a former construction contractor from North Carolina, according to The New York Times, reportedly had no military experience. “I think everyone should support the Ukrainians,” he told the newspaper. He said he had hundreds of Afghan contacts, men who were in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan and who could possibly help Ukraine. “We can probably buy some passports through Pakistan because it is a corrupt country.”
In July, he wrote on Facebook, according to the BBC: “Soldiers, don’t call me. We are still trying to get Ukraine to allow Afghan soldiers in and hope for answers in the coming months.”
He is also said to have asked X CEO Elon Musk via the social media platform whether he could buy a rocket from him. Pro-Palestinian, pro-Taiwanese and anti-Chinese messages also appeared via his account on X. China is said to be guilty of “biological warfare” by spreading covid from that country.
Voted for Trump
Trump is actually in favor of ending support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. On X, Routh writes that he voted for Trump in 2016, but that he has become disillusioned with him.
In April he posted on X that Biden should rebrand his campaign as “something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free.” Trump’s campaign should be called MASA: “make Americans slaves again“. He added: “Democracy is at stake, we cannot lose,” CNN wrote.
Routh is said to have had eight run-ins with the law in the past, including for failing to pay taxes on time. CNN spoke to his sonwho says he fears the incident will be “made bigger than it is”. He also says he does not know his father as a “crazy, let alone violent” man.
Backpacks with tiles
Trump was golfing yesterday in West Palm Beach, Florida, when a Secret Service agent spotted a man with a firearm. The agent saw a gun barrel sticking out of the bushes near the gate to the course. The man was sitting about a quarter mile away from the former president, according to the Secret Service. It appears he was not on the course grounds, but just outside the course.
The Secret Service then opened fire on him and the man fled. Because a bystander was able to provide his license plate, he was quickly arrested in his car. It is not clear whether the suspect himself also shot.
In the bushes where the man had been hiding, officers found an AK-47 weapon with a scope and a GoPro camera. The suspect had also hung ceramic tiles in backpacks on the fence, which the FBI said were probably intended to be bulletproof. “He was clearly afraid of a confrontation.”
AFPThe backpacks that the perpetrator had hung up with tiles in them
US President Biden is relieved that presidential candidate Donald Trump was not harmed. “There is no place for political violence in our country,” he said in a statement on X.
The FBI says it has opened an investigation into “what amounts to an attempted assassination attempt” on the former president, more than two months after another attempt to shoot Trump dead at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Biden says an investigation is underway into a “possible assassination attempt.” “I have directed that the Secret Service be provided with every possible resource and protective measure to ensure the safety of the former president.”
VS-correspondent Rudy Bouma:
“Although the police and Secret Service responded quickly and adequately to the situation, the question now arises as to how a shooter managed to get within shooting range of Donald Trump. The fifth hole where Trump was golfing is just a few hundred yards from an open gate where the shooter was positioned, carrying an AK-47 fitted with a scope.
The golf course is difficult to secure. There are several busy roads around it. However, security guards shield Trump with golf carts when he plays. Trump’s security had already been beefed up after the failed assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. He also only speaks from behind glass at outdoor rallies.
Kamala Harris is also heavily guarded. This further limits their contact with voters. This possible second attempt at an attack could also create a different dynamic, as happened after the first attempt on his life.”
Trump’s rival in the upcoming presidential election, Kamala Harris, says she is happy, like Biden, that Trump is doing well. “We all have a responsibility to ensure that this incident does not lead to further violence,” Vice President Harris said in a statement released by the White House.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson posted a photo of himself with Trump on X, reportedly taken after the golf course incident. Johnson said he spent “a few hours” with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. “No leader in American history has faced more attacks. But he is unstoppable,” Johnson wrote.
Elon Musk, who has backed Trump’s campaign, also responded on his platform X. “And no one has tried to kill Biden/Kamala yet,” followed by a thinking emoticon. The tweet has since been deleted.
Trump was shielded by a golf cart with bulletproof glass around the incident before being taken to his Mar-a-Lago estate, about a 15-minute drive away.
He has since made himself heard via his social media platform Truth Social. He calls it “an interesting day” and thanks the Secret Service, the sheriff and all those involved in his protection. “I am proud to be an American.”
