Convict, Zelensky fanboy, would-be Trump assassin: Who is Ryan Routh?

Ryan Wesley Routh, identified in US media as the gunman who allegedly targeted former President Donald Trump on Sunday, is to be subjected to a mental health evaluation, according to sources cited by CNN. Federal authorities reportedly requested the measure due to “unusual rants” the suspect posted online.

The 58-year-old apparently has an unusual past which includes a criminal conviction, trying to recruit US-trained Afghan fighters to join the Ukrainian military, and writing a self-published book, in which he ponders, among other things, why Russian President Vladimir Putin “has not been killed yet.”

The presumed would-be shooter was taken into custody on Sunday shortly after fleeing Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. At the time of writing, officials have not named him or charged him with any crime, but images and reports by media leave few doubts about the man’s identity.

A profile posted by Associated Press says that Routh lived most of his life in North Carolina, but moved to Kaaawa, Hawaii in 2018. In 2020, he donated to the Democratic Party’s presidential campaign of then-US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, according to records.

Facebook and X have scrubbed the content of accounts that Routh is believed to have held in his name, though not before some media outlets researched them.

In 2020, he reportedly urged then-President Trump to crack down on police misconduct to secure reelection, and said he’d voted for the Republican in 2016. His political preference appears to have switched to the Democrats since.

Criminal records reveal that while living in Greensboro, North Carolina Routh had multiple run-ins with the police. In 2002, he was convicted of possession of a weapon of mass destruction. The charge, according to local press, related to a fully automatic machine gun, over which he had a three-hour armed standoff with law enforcement. Routh, who was 36 at the time, barricaded himself at his business following a combative traffic stop.

In 2022, Routh apparently found himself a cause he considered worthy. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict, he had been declaring online his willingness to go to Ukraine and die for the country. The conflict, he explained to Newsweek, is “black and white” and “good versus evil” like in books and movies.

He did travel to Europe and seek a place in the Ukrainian military but his overtures were rejected by Kiev. So, instead he joined the  activists and NGOs raising aid for the Ukrainians, and recruiting foreign fighters willing to take up arms for the country.

That did not seem to work out particularly well either. In an interview with Semaphore in 2023, where he outlined his mission to recruit former Afghan commandos to fight for Ukraine, Routh complained that the Ukrainians were “afraid that anybody and everybody is a Russian spy.” 

At about the same time he was featured in a New York Times story about “US volunteers in Ukraine, who lie, waste and bicker,” as the title said. The article converted some higher-profile figures in the pro-Kiev circuit, such as former MSNBC commentator Malcolm Nance, and US military veteran James Vasquez, who became a minor online celebrity by posting battlefield videos, before being exposed for lying about his combat experience. Routh, according to Newsweek Romania journalist Remus Cernea, came across as “an idealistic, innocent, genuine person.”

Routh’s disillusionment did not discourage him from rooting for Ukraine and sharing online the messages of its leader, Vladimir Zelensky. He also seemed to want to lay the ground for foreign fighters to take up arms against China in the name of the self-governed island of Taiwan. He was involved with a website named Taiwan Foreign Legion, apparently modeled after Ukraine’s efforts to enlist foreign troops.

He also apparently penned a book titled ‘Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen – Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity.’ It was sold through Amazon but had no publisher, it seems, or even an editor.

According to excerpts, shared by journalist Max Blumenthal, Routh was perplexed that no insider would assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The swirling question in every chat around the world is to why Putin has not been killed yet. In the USA we have many killed; JFK, MLK, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, John Lennon, Tupac, Biggie, Jimmy Hoffa; so many that we cannot even remember them all,” he wrote, without explaining the comparison. “What has happened to the Russian people that they are brainwashed into totally blind sheep.”

In another passage he appeared to apologize to Iran for Joe Biden’s failure to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump scrapped during his presidency. He said Tehran was “free to assassinate Trump as well as me” for the “error” of voting for Biden.