Online, Ryan Wesley Routh presented himself as a man who helped house homeless people in Hawaii, sought to enlist Ukrainian fighters to fight Russia, and alternately supported and despised Donald Trump, going so far as to call on Iran to assassinate him.
According to Routh’s book “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” which was allegedly self-published in 2023, the former president was called a “fool” and a “buffoon” for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the “tremendous blunder” of withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. Routh also said that Iran was free to kill Trump.
According to Routh, he is partially to blame for the “child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless” because he had voted for Trump in the past.
Authorities believe that Routh, 58, attempted to assassinate the GOP presidential nominee while he was golfing in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, but the Secret Service foiled the plot.
A portrait of Routh with a criminal history, plenty of fury, and beliefs spanning from the left to the right—including support for Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, Nikki Haley, and Trump—emerged from his extensive internet footprint, public records, interviews, and videos with news outlets.
According to North Carolina voter records, he first cast a ballot in person during the state’s Democratic primary in March of 2012 after registering as an independent voter in 2012.
The federal campaign finance records show that since 2019, Routh has contributed $140 in 19 smaller donations to ActBlue, a political action organization that gives money to Democratic candidates.
After George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in June 2020, Routh tweeted that then-President Trump could secure his reelection by directing the prosecution of police brutality. It appears that his stance on Trump has changed in recent years, as he has shown support for Democratic presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.
He endorsed Joe Biden in April by writing, “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose” on X.
When Trump was attacked at a rally in Pennsylvania in July, Routh’s article urged Biden and Harris to go to the hospital to see the injured and pay their respects to the fallen fireman.
In his letter, Routh said that Trump would never help those people.
“I get so tired of people asking me if I am a Democrat or Republican as I refuse to be put in a category,” Routh wrote in his book, which the AP read and which is available on Amazon. It was
“It seems that the totality of the world’s problems revolve around men with massive insecurity and childlike intelligence and behavior.” He published this in a book that links to his website and X account, claiming that women would make the world a better place.
He was active on social media, posting often on the conflict in Ukraine and others. He even set up a website to solicit donations and recruit fighters for the Ukrainian side. Wearing a T-shirt and jacket festooned with U.S. flags, a smiling Wiry, Wild-Hair Routh is seen on his site in an image.
An online video of Routh stating, “This is about good versus evil,” has gone viral. “I am going to fight and die for Ukraine.” he tweeted.
Routh was captured on camera by the AP during a minor protest in Independence Square in Kyiv in April 2022, just two months following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to invade the country.
We will not stand for evil and corruption for another half-century or more, according to a poster he was brandishing. Save our children from Russia.
Additionally, he paid his respects at a makeshift monument to “Foreigners killed by Putin” on the same day.
According to Oleksandr Shahuri of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Command, Routh has no military experience and has never worked with Ukrainian forces.
The International Legion of Ukraine was contacted by Routh on a regular basis with what Shahuri called “nonsensical ideas” that “can best be described as delusional,” according to the AP.
A video of Routh outside the United States Capitol shows him fuming about the fact that Ukraine isn’t accepting more of the Afghan commandos he sought to enlist.
“They’re afraid that anybody and everybody is a Russian spy,” he told news website Semafor in 2023.
He went so far as to tweet at Bruno Mars and Dave Matthews earlier this year, urging them to arrange a “We are the World”-style effort for Kyiv. “As support stalls, we need an emotional tribute song for Ukraine,” he wrote. “I possess song lyrics and musical compositions.”
In an additional tweet, Routh reached out to Dennis Rodman, a former NBA star, pleading for assistance in easing sanctions on North Korea. His Hawaii home becomes a safe haven for a group of twelve protesters in Hong Kong in another, where they risk Chinese repression.
Throughout his life, Routh was known to have had brushes with the law in Greensboro, North Carolina. According to court records, he was convicted of a felony in 2002 for carrying explosives, detonation cord, and a blasting cap.
The arrest of Routh followed his three-hour standoff with police at a roofing company with “a fully automatic machine gun,” according to the Greensboro News & Record, after he evaded a traffic stop. The company’s ownership was recorded as his in the state records.
According to court records, Routh was apprehended by the authorities after they confiscated explosives and an unknown quantity of firearms. Routh consented to a mental health evaluation as part of his plea agreement and promised to follow the results. The findings of that assessment are absent from the records that the county clerk of court submitted to the Associated Press on Monday.
In addition to a felony conviction for possession of stolen goods in 2010, Routh also had misdemeanor convictions for things like speeding, driving with a revoked license, hit-and-run, and illegally carrying a hidden weapon.
According to court documents from the criminal case that occurred in 2010, investigators found that Routh was residing in the warehouse of his roofing company while concealing stolen construction materials and other goods. According to a police affidavit utilized to obtain a search warrant, the proceeds from the sale of the stolen goods were utilized to acquire crack cocaine.
According to court documents, judges in both of the felony trials spared Routh prison time by sentencing him to probation or a suspended sentence.
How Routh managed to acquire a weapon remains a mystery. A felony conviction makes it illegal to acquire or own a handgun in the majority of states.
To start a business with his adult son in the construction of small wooden shelters, Routh relocated to the Hawaii village of Kaaawa in 2018. Kaaawa is located around 45 minutes outside of Honolulu. His professional LinkedIn profile states that the buildings would “assist in addressing the highest homelessness rate in the United States due to unparalleled gentrification.”
In an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser from 2019, he expressed his frustration with the widespread problem of homeless individuals on the island.
On Sunday, no one came to his brightly painted blue stucco house near the shore, which features wooden fish cutouts. In the driveway stood a white pickup vehicle that had a flat tire and a bumper sticker of the Biden-Harris campaign.
According to Christopher Tam, a neighbor, Routh was quiet, polite, and friendly. He also kept to himself.
“It’s been absolutely astonishing,” Tam remarked. To us, it’s astonishing if he was involved in any way.