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The Story Behind Trump's Second Assassin Took a Strange Turn...and It Involves the Media

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  September 16, 2024 6:30 AM

Donald Trump was golfing in West Palm Beach, Florida, when Ryan Wesley Routh waited along the green, hoping to assassinate the former president and record it. He left a GoPro and an AK-style rifle mounted with a scope on the scene. He was later apprehended by local police, but not before scurrying when Secret Service agents opened fire on him; they saw the barrel from his gun through the shrubbery. 

Ryan Wesley Routh has a criminal record that spans the Himalayas. We’re waiting to see if he was on the radar for any federal law enforcement agencies vis-à-vis recent threats: the FBI has a terrible track record of being ‘in the know’ concerning future perpetrators of firearm-related crimes nowadays. Yet, in an odd turn, the media had this joker on their radar. They interviewed him. When his name was released, The New York Times must’ve checked their clips because there he was. The publication interviewed him about the ongoing war in Ukraine—Routh appears to have been obsessed with the subject: 

In a telephone interview with The New York Times in 2023, when Mr. Routh was in Washington, he spoke with a self-assuredness of a seasoned diplomat who thought his plans to support Ukraine’s war effort were sure to succeed. But he appeared to have little patience for anyone who got in his way. When an American foreign fighter seemed to talk down to him in a Facebook message he shared with The New York Times, Mr. Routh said, “he needs to be shot.” 

In the interview, Mr. Routh said he was in Washington to meet with the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission “for two hours” to help push for more support for Ukraine. The commission is led by members of Congress and staffed by congressional aides. It is influential on matters of democracy and security and has been vocal in supporting Ukraine. 

Mr. Routh also said he was seeking recruits for Ukraine from among Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban. He said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest. 

“We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” he said. 

It is not clear whether Mr. Routh followed through, but one former Afghan soldier said he had been contacted and was interested in fighting if it meant leaving Iran, where he was living illegally. 

Semafor also spoke to this man: 

When Ryan Routh spoke to Semafor on March 7, 2023, he was frustrated with the Ukrainian government for which he’d traveled around the world to support. 

The Ukrainians, he complained, were being too rigid about admitting foreign soldiers of dubious qualifications, including a group of Afghan commandos who were facing skepticism and bureaucratic roadblocks in Kyiv. 

“Ukraine is very often hard to work with. Many foreign soldiers leave after a week in Ukraine or must move from unit to unit to find a place they are respected and appreciated,” he told Semafor. He’d been “yelled at” every time he suggested they tap Afghan commandos. “They’re afraid that anybody and everybody is a Russian spy,” he said with frustration. 

[…] 

When Semafor talked to him, Routh was one of a wave of American volunteers in Ukraine, the self-appointed director of a group he’d started called the International Volunteer Center. He was, even by the standards of that frantic moment, a bit over the top, a Ukrainian involved in the effort told us at the time. But he was also, they said, authentically involved in the efforts to bring in foreign troops, and we quoted him in a story about the Afghan fighters. 

On X, he frantically tweeted at President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with his ideas — for instance, “to use Independence Park to create a tent city of all the foreigners here in support to get thousands more foreign civilians to come and support Ukraine.” Zelenskyy did not appear to respond. 

He’s also featured in pro-Ukrainian propaganda. The whole story has now taken a weird turn. Moreover, how long do you think until this story gets suffocated by the media? Look what happened to Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed trying to assassinate Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Secret Service can’t stonewall anymore, not with two assassination attempts on Trump within the past 65 days. 

Routh was a virulent anti-Trump nutter butter, though I’m sure the media will pitch the usual ‘we don’t know his motives.’ They shouldn’t: enough of his anti-Trump social media posts were screenshotted, and his son said he hates Trump. Gee—what a mystery this is, right?

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Yet, the Ukraine stuff and these supposed contacts with various government entities add a new layer of intrigue. Did this man ever meet with these top officials?