The suspect arrested Sunday in connection with an alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump appears to have previously donated to Democrats while living in Hawaii, according to CNN.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, a former roofing contractor from Greensboro, North Carolina, allegedly pointed an AK-47-style weapon at the former president while he was golfing at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach, News Nation reported. Routh appears to have donated over $100 to ActBlue, making contributions to the 2020 presidential campaigns of Tom Steyer, Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, and Beto O’Rourke, federal campaign finance records show.
In March, Routh voted in North Carolina’s Democratic primary, CNN reported, however he previously appeared to support Trump in 2016, and suggested he has since changed his opinion on the former president.
“While you were my choice in 2106 (sic), 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,” he wrote in June 2020, according to CNN. “I will be glad when you gone.”
Routh tagged President Joe Biden’s Twitter account in April, saying his campaign should be “called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free,” while Trump’s campaign “should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
Routh also traveled to Ukraine after Russia’s February 2022 invasion despite having no military training, according to the New York Times. (RELATED: MSNBC Anchor Says Trump Should Tone Down Rhetoric After Potential Second Assassination Attempt)
The 58-year-old man who was arrested on Sunday in connection with what the FBI described as an attempted assassination on Donald Trump was interviewed by The New York Times in 2023 for a story about Americans volunteering to aid the war effort in Ukraine. https://t.co/fsYEfsPV7M
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 16, 2024
In a 2023 New York Times article about American volunteers willing to fight in Ukraine, the newspaper quoted Routh saying he was actively recruiting Afghans who fled the Taliban to fight against the Russians.
In a Newsweek interview, Routh said that many conflicts are gray, “but this conflict is definitely black and white. This is about good versus evil.”
🚨BREAKING: Ryan Wesley Routh, who tried to kill President Trump was connected to Rep Adam Kinzinger through his support and fight for Ukraine.
Heavily brainwashed Dem!
0-2! Trump Won! Ryan Routh didn’t kill himself!#TrumpAssassinationAttempt #trumpassassinationattempt2 pic.twitter.com/1QGeWCGkF3
— AJ Huber (@Huberton) September 15, 2024
When Routh spoke to the New York Times in 2023, the newspaper reported that he displayed the “self-assuredness of a seasoned diplomat who thought his plans to support Ukraine’s war effort were sure to succeed,” adding that he apparently had little regard for anybody who didn’t agree with him.
Routh shared a Facebook post with the newspaper depicting an American foreign fighter who allegedly spoke down to him as someone who “needs to be shot.”
Routh son’s, Oran, told the Guardian that his father went to Ukraine “to make sure shit was cool, and shit was not cool” because people were “fucking fighting and dying.”
Regarding last week’s presidential debate where Trump did not answer whether he wanted Ukraine to defeat Russia, Oran told the newspaper, “Meanwhile, this guy’s sitting behind his fucking desk, not doing a goddamn thing.”
Speaking to CNN, Oran called Routh “a loving and caring father” and an “honest hardworking man.”
“I don’t know what has happened in Florida…it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent,” he said.
