Ryan Wesley Routh, the gunman whom authorities say intended to assassinate former president Donald Trump at his Florida golf club on Sunday, has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an erased serial number.
Routh, 58, appeared in Florida federal court Monday morning, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit with his hands and feet shackled. During the initial court appearance, he told the judge he makes about $3,000 a month, has zero savings, and owns two trucks worth about $1,000 each. Additional charges will likely follow as federal prosecutors seek an indictment.
If convicted, Routh could face up to 15 years in prison on the first charge and five years on the second charge, according to officials. He is due back for a bond hearing on September 23 and his arraignment on September 30.
Routh was detained in the vicinity of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club Sunday afternoon after a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel sticking out of the bushes and opened fire on the would-be assassin. Routh fled the scene and was pulled over in his car a short distance away. In addition to the AK-47-style rifle, he carried a GoPro and two backpacks filled with ceramic tiles set up to record the shooting. He was found stationed about 400 to 500 yards away from the former president while he was golfing.
Shortly after the charges were announced on Monday, phone records revealed the suspect spent nearly 12 hours near the golf course before he was confronted by an agent.
No motive for the thwarted attack has been revealed, as the FBI continues investigating the assassination attempt. Trump was unharmed, unlike the first assassination attempt in July when a bullet grazed his right ear.
The two federal charges add to Routh’s extensive criminal history, though people in the small-town North Carolina community wouldn’t have known by the looks of him. Former neighbors who spoke to National Review said Routh mostly kept to himself in the rural, unincorporated community of Julian in Guilford County, N.C.
Routh’s former landlord, who asked that his name not be released, described Routh as a “fine” tenant and a seemingly “friendly man” who paid his rent on time and didn’t cause trouble. However, the Trump-supporting landlord said he’d heard that Routh had a history of arrests and traffic offenses in Guilford County.
Court records show that Routh has a rap sheet in Guilford County dating back to the early 1980s, when he first faced charges of speeding and driving without a license. He was cited on similar charges dozens of times over the last 40 years, records show.
In the early 2000s he faced several charges of passing worthless checks, possession of stolen goods and motor vehicles, and drug possession, court records show. In December 2002, he was arrested after he fled a traffic stop and barricaded himself inside his roofing business with a machine gun as part of a standoff with police, according to a report from the Greensboro News & Record.
That incident led to a charge of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, a category that includes fully automatic firearms under North Carolina law. He was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon, driving with a revoked license, and resisting, delaying, and obstructing a police officer.
“I was surprised to hear about his run-in with the law,” the landlord said.
The landlord said after Routh moved out of the home he was renting, the police came by to investigate. “He stored some machinery in a building we had on the farm there, and it seems like it was stolen,” the landlord said. “I didn’t know it at the time.”
Routh later moved to a house down a long rural road nearby. Elliott Smith grew up in the area, and while he knew of Routh, he didn’t know much about him. While the neighbors in the area generally knew one another, “nobody really knew that guy too well,” Smith said.
A woman who lived next door to Routh for nearly two decades told the local Fox8 station that Routh was unusual, but she didn’t expect he’d attempt to assassinate a president. However, she said she knew that Routh had access to a lot of guns.
“I’ve seen the guns myself and all,” she said, adding that “a lot of people were afraid of him back in the day.”
The neighbor told the Fox affiliate that Routh moved to Hawaii in May, though other reports suggest he’d lived in Hawaii longer than that.
Attempts by National Review to reach Routh’s family members were unsuccessful. His son, Oran Routh, told the Daily Mail on Sunday that his father hated Trump as “every reasonable person does.” But he insisted that his dad, whom he’d had a falling out with, is not dangerous. “He’s my dad and all he’s had is couple traffic tickets, as far as I know,” Oran Routh said. “That’s crazy. I know my dad and love my dad, but that’s nothing like him.”
“He’s not a violent person,” he added. “He’s a hard worker and a great dad. He’s a great dude, a nice guy and has worked his whole f**king life.”
Meanwhile, Routh is a devoted supporter of Ukraine, where he says he spent some time in 2022 to fight the Russians. While there, he sought to recruit Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war. It remains unclear whether he fought on the frontlines.
He touched on his supposed recruitment tactic on behalf of Ukraine in past interviews with the New York Times, Semafor, and Newsweek Romania.
In the Newsweek interview published in June 2022, Routh spoke about how he tried recruiting volunteers for the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, a military unit composed of foreign fighters.
“The question as far as why I’m here . . . to me, a lot of the other conflicts are grey, but this conflict is definitely black and white,” he said. “This is about good versus evil. This is a storybook, you know, any movie we’ve ever watched, this is definitely evil against good.”
The recruitment effort, however, faced obstacles from Ukrainian officials.
“Most of the Ukrainian authorities do not want these soldiers,” Routh told Semafor in 2023 as head of the International Volunteer Center in Ukraine. “I have had partners meeting with [Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense] every week and still have not been able to get them to agree to issue one single visa.”
While it’s unclear exactly how he spent his time in Ukraine, Routh claimed on social media that he visited Kyiv to fight.
In a February 2022 tweet, he wrote that he was prepared to “fight and die for the kids and families of Ukraine” as part of a “massive civilian army.” In a subsequent tweet, he called for sanctions against Russia.
The Legion responded to Routh’s past statements to news outlets, clarifying he “has never been part of, associated with, or linked to the International Legion in any capacity,” the group said in an emailed response to NBC News on Monday. “Any claims or suggestions indicating otherwise are entirely inaccurate.”