On September 16th, the Secret Service spotted a man hiding in the bushes on the outskirts of the Trump International Golf Club in Florida. He had a rifle in hand, ready to fire at the former president of the United States who was about 300 to 500 yards away on the golf course. An agent overseeing the area noticed the attacker and fired shots at him which caused him to flee, only to eventually be pulled over on the highway. The agent claimed the assailant fired no bullets at Trump.
Police investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club after the assassination attempt, courtesy of Joe Raedle, The Washington State Standard.
The Attempt
When the Secret Service caught up to the suspect, he was found with a scoped AK-47, two backpacks, and a GoPro camera. The individual was identified as Ryan Wesley Routh (58), originally from North Carolina but registered as a Hawaiian citizen. In his car, agents found a list of dates and locations where Trump was expected to appear from August to October, along with a notebook that displayed writings critical of Russian and Chinese governments and notes on how to join Ukraine’s war effort. One phone in Routh’s possession uncovered a Google search explaining how to get from Palm Beach County to Mexico City. His phone was also recorded as being in the vicinity of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate throughout the month leading up to the attempt.
The most chilling detail, however, is the note given by Routh to an unnamed witness several months before the attempt. “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you”, he wrote. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster”. In the note, Routh offered $150,000 to whoever could “finish the job” and directed the message to the “world”. The note was placed in a box containing ammunition, a metal pipe, and four phones among other objects, evidently planned to be read in the case of failure. The witness claimed only to have opened the box after finding out about the event.
He claimed that Trump was responsible for ending relations with Iran and that lasting consequences in the Middle East followed as a result. The court filing also shows that the attacker wrote in a book that he would “take part of the blame for the person that we elected as president” and apologized to Iran.
Routh´s Backstory
Federal gun charges have been brought forward, which Trump has openly labeled as a “slap on the wrist” and claimed the Biden administration is “mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July.” If found guilty, Routh will be subject to a maximum sentence of 20 years and fines of up to half a million dollars. On September 30th, he pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. The FBI has said that it is believed no one else was involved by association. Routh is a previous offender, having been convicted in 2002 for possession of weapons of mass death and destruction and in 2010 was found guilty of several counts of possession of stolen goods.
Additionally, he applied to fight for the Ukrainian International Legion but was turned down, with his age and inexperience listed as the reasons. An unnamed person who knew Routh and was associated with the unit described him as “a little too much” for them and the legion, claiming he displayed erratic behavior. Afterward, he signed up to work as a coordinator for volunteers fighting for Ukraine, setting up a tent in Kyiv’s Maidan Square. He described his decision as “pretty much a no-brainer, stating that he was surprised that everyone was not there alongside him.
Ryan Routh the man accussed and arrested for the attempted assasination of Trump wearing face paint in support of Ukriane- Courtesy of NPR via Getty Images.
Reactions of the Public
Following the attempt, Trump put out the following statement: “FEAR NOT! I am safe and well, and no one was hurt. Thank God!” His electoral opponent, Vice President Harris commented soon after, saying she was “deeply disturbed by the possible assassination attempt of former President Trump”. This of course comes only a few months after he was shot at during a rally in Pennsylvania. Mike Johnson, the Republican House Speaker, has hailed Trump saying “No leader in American history has endured more attacks and remained so strong and resilient. He is unstoppable”.
The entire situation once again invited criticism at the expense of the Secret Service, who admitted “complacency” during the first assassination attempt against Trump back in July. Ronald Rowe, the acting director, stated that they could not “afford to fail” in today’s “hyperdynamic threat environment”. He blamed the “overreliance” on personal mobile devices for the transmission of information, rather than the agency’s private radio network.
Memories of July
Naturally, the Secret Service was blamed much more extensively for the July 13th attempt which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. On that day, the attacker, Thomas Matthew Crooks managed to get shots off at the crowd, killing a spectator and injuring seven people, including Trump himself. According to Rowe, the main shortcoming was the inefficient relay of information regarding the position of the shooter. There was a lack of clear guidance and direction between the local and state law enforcement partners which led to unpreparedness.
In both cases, security was heightened as a result. Donald Trump has claimed to now be “surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than I have ever seen before”. Both he and Kamala Harris now speak with bulletproof glass around them at rallies. Congress has approved funding for both of them to receive presidential-level protections, which is unprecedented in US history.
Time is running out until the inauguration of the next president of the United States. As election day approaches, security will be kept at a maximum level throughout the country plagued with increasingly potent security threats. Everyone across the political spectrum is facing off against a common adversary. Evidently, the threats are not purely verbal, but in some cases life-threatening.
