The suspect in Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt targeting former U.S. President Donald Trump has been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, made his initial court appearance in a federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday.
Various records showed that Routh spent much of his adult life living in North Carolina, a mid-Atlantic coastal state, but more recently lived across the country in the Pacific Ocean island state of Hawaii, in the small oceanside hamlet of Kaaawa, where he and his son operated a company building sheds, according to an archived version of the webpage for the business.
The house of Ryan Routh is seen in Kaaawa, Hawaii, Sept. 15, 2024. Routh is in police custody in connection with the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Routh had multiple run-ins with law enforcement while living in Greensboro, North Carolina, according to U.S. news accounts. He was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction after, according to a news account at the time, being pulled over by police in a traffic stop and then barricading himself in the roofing business he owned.
The suspect was a vocal supporter of Ukraine. Routh traveled there after Russia's 2022 invasion and told journalists he hoped to recruit foreign fighters to Kyiv's cause. Routh himself was rejected as too old to volunteer to fight with Kyiv’s forces.
Ryan W. Routh, suspected of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, stands handcuffed between two Martin County deputies after his arrest near Palm City, Fla., Sept. 15, 2024. (Martin County Sheriff's Office/Handout via Reuters)
"A lot of the other conflicts are gray, but this conflict is definitely black and white. This is about good versus evil," Routh said in a video interview posted by Newsweek Romania in June 2022. He wore a shirt with American flag symbols.
"If the governments will not send their official military, then we, civilians, have to pick up the torch," Routh said. He lived for a while in Kyiv in a tent adorned with flags of countries whose citizens had died in the war.
Ukraine's International Legion of foreign volunteers told Reuters that Routh had "never been part of, associated with, or linked to the International Legion in any capacity."
A legion official told CNN Routh had sent emails offering to recruit foreign volunteers, but Ukraine's military thought the American was "delusional."
"We didn’t even answer, there was nothing to answer to. He was never part of the Legion and didn’t cooperate with us in any way,” Oleksandr Shaguri, an officer of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Land Forces Command, told CNN.
FILE - Ryan Wesley Routh pays tribute to foreign citizens killed during Russia-Ukraine war in a central square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Apr. 30, 2022.
In June 2020, Routh made a post on X directed at then-president Trump to say he would win reelection if he issued an executive order for the Justice Department to prosecute police misconduct. That year, he also posted in support of the Democratic Party presidential campaign of then-U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who has since left the party and endorsed Trump.
However, in recent years, Routh’s posts suggest he soured on Trump, and he expressed support for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently voting in person during the state's Democratic Party primary in March 2024. Federal campaign finance records show Routh made 19 small political donations totaling $140 since 2019 using his Hawaii address to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.