Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old alleged Donald Trump assassin arrested on Sunday after being spotted in the bushes with a rifle on the edge of the former president’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, reportedly traveled to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and wanted to recruit Afghan fighters to help the cause.
According to a report from the Financial Times, which actually interviewed Routh in 2023, he was rejected after showing up at the office of the Ukrainian International Legion.
“They said, ‘You’re 56, you’re old, and you have no experience’,” Routh told the Financial Times in a 2023 interview. “So, why don’t you recruit and co-ordinate?”
That did not deter Routh, however, as he then opted to “co-ordinate volunteers” in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv.
Routh told the outlet that he sought to “promote the foreign fighters and foreigners who were there sacrificing their time and energy and lives to support Ukraine.”
Further, Routh sought to recruit Afghan fighters to battle on behalf of Ukraine.
“We’ve got 20,000 Afghan soldiers sitting around and doing nothing,” Routh said, suggesting that they could be persuaded to fight, but, according to reports, no one took that plan very seriously.
This development coincides with resurfaced social media posts, showing Routh’s obsession with the Ukrainian cause. He also reportedly donated to Democrats 19 times and has a Biden-Harris sticker on his truck.
Authorities apprehended Routh on Sunday, and it has since been reported that he is actually a felon who is barred from gun possession. He currently faces two charges: “Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number,” per reports.
As Breitbart News detailed:
The felony stems from an incident in which Routh allegedly barricaded himself and had a standoff with police in 2002. The Greensboro News & Record noted that once the standoff ended, Routh was arrested and “charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction, referring to a fully automatic machine gun.”
Breitbart News reported that Routh fled the scene of Trump’s Palm Beach golf course Sunday after allegedly being spotted pointing a rifle through the fence by Secret Service. Law enforcement found an AK-style rifle, two backpacks, and a Go-Pro camera in the bushes where Routh had allegedly taken a position prior to fleeing.
According to the FBI’s criminal affidavit, the alleged assassin had an SKS-style rifle.
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Martin County Sheriff’s Office / FacebookMartin County Sheriff William D. Snyder is among those who are asking how, exactly, Routh knew Trump’s schedule.
“I would ask that question. That would be the first thing I’d want to know if I was the federal government: What the heck was going on that put this guy on Trump at the golf course without any advanced notice to the public that he would be out there,” he said, describing the situation as “very perplexing.”
Trump took to Truth Social on Monday, a day after his second escape from death, pointing directly to the left’s rhetoric:
The Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate, and all of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, Political Opponent, ME, has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.
He added, “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!”
