Who is Ryan Routh? — RT World News

Ryan Wesley Routh, identified in US media as the gunman who allegedly attacked former President Donald Trump on Sunday, will undergo a mental health evaluation, according to sources cited by CNN. Federal authorities have requested the measure due to “unusual ramblings” The suspect posted online.

The 58-year-old apparently has an unusual past that includes a criminal conviction, attempting to recruit US-trained Afghan fighters to join the Ukrainian military and writing a self-published book, in which he ponders, among other things, why Russian President Vladimir Putin “he has not been killed yet.”

The suspected shooter was arrested on Sunday shortly after fleeing Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. As of this writing, authorities have not identified him or charged him with any crime, but images and media reports leave little doubt about the man's identity.

A profile published by the Associated Press says Routh lived most of his life in North Carolina but moved to Kaaawa, Hawaii, in 2018. In 2020, he donated to the Democratic presidential campaign of then-U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, records show.

Facebook and X have removed content from accounts believed to be held by Routh, though not before some media outlets investigated them.

In 2020, he reportedly urged then-President Trump to crack down on police misconduct to secure re-election, saying he had voted for the Republican in 2016. His political preference appears to have shifted toward Democrats since then.

Criminal records show that while living in Greensboro, North Carolina, Routh had multiple run-ins with police. In 2002, he was convicted of possession of a weapon of mass destruction. The charge, according to local media, related to a fully automatic machine gun, over which he engaged in an armed standoff with police for three hours. Routh, who was 36 at the time, barricaded himself in his business after being stopped for a traffic violation.

In 2022, Routh apparently found a cause he deemed worthy. Since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict, he had been declaring online his willingness to go to Ukraine and die for the country. The conflict, he explained to Newsweek, is “black and white” and “good versus evil” Like in books and movies.

He travelled to Europe and sought a place in the Ukrainian army, but kyiv rejected his overtures. So instead he joined activists and NGOs collecting aid for Ukrainians and recruiting foreign fighters willing to take up arms for the country.

That didn't seem to work particularly well either. In an interview with Semaphore in 2023, where he described his mission to recruit former Afghan commandos to fight for Ukraine, Routh complained that the Ukrainians were “I fear that anyone could be a Russian spy.”

Around the same time, he appeared in a New York Times article about “American volunteers in Ukraine who lie, waste and argue” As the title said. The article won over some high-profile figures in the pro-kyiv circuit, such as former MSNBC commentator Malcolm Nance and US military veteran James Vasquez, who became a minor online celebrity by posting battlefield videos, before being exposed for lying about his combat experience. Routh, according to Newsweek Romania journalist Remus Cernea, presented himself as “an idealistic, innocent and genuine person.”

Routh’s disillusionment did not deter him from supporting Ukraine and sharing messages from its leader, Vladimir Zelensky, online. He also appeared to want to prepare the ground for foreign fighters to take up arms against China on behalf of the self-ruled island of Taiwan. He was involved in a website called Taiwan Foreign Legion, apparently inspired by Ukraine’s efforts to recruit foreign troops.

He also apparently wrote a book called “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: Democracy’s Fatal Flaw, World Dereliction, and the Global Citizen: Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, and the End of Humanity.” It was sold through Amazon, but had no publisher, apparently not even a publisher.

According to excerpts shared by journalist Max Blumenthal, Routh was perplexed that no infiltrator would want to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The question that is repeated in every conversation around the world is why hasn’t Putin been assassinated yet? In the United States, so many people have been assassinated: JFK, MLK, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, John Lennon, Tupac, Biggie, Jimmy Hoffa; so many that we can’t even remember them all.” he wrote, without explaining the comparison. “What has happened to the Russian people that they have been brainwashed and turned into totally blind sheep?”

In another passage, he appeared to apologize to Iran for Joe Biden's failure to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump scrapped during his presidency. He said Tehran was “Free to kill Trump and me” For the “mistake” to vote for Biden.