A man suspected of trying to kill Donald Trump has been charged with two federal gun-related offenses after he was found with a rifle hidden in bushes on the former US president’s golf course in Florida. Reuters was mentioned.
According to a criminal complaint filed Monday, phone records show the suspect may have been waiting for nearly 12 hours, armed with a rifle and supplies.
While additional charges are pending, the current charges — being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number — allow authorities to hold him while the investigation continues.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee in the Nov. 5 election, was unharmed. But the incident raises new questions about how an armed suspect was able to get so close to him, just two months after another gunman shot Trump during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear with a bullet.
The US Secret Service opened fire when an agent saw a rifle barrel sticking out of the bushes on Sunday at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, a few hundred yards from where the former president was playing.
According to the complaint, the gunman fled in a sport utility vehicle. Officers found a loaded rifle, a digital camera and a plastic bag of food.
A suspect, identified Monday as Ryan Routh, 58, was arrested about 40 minutes later driving north on Interstate 95. When asked if he knew why he was stopped, Routh “replied affirmatively,” according to the complaint. His license plate was reported stolen from another car.
Records show a phone associated with Routh was located on the golf course from 1:59 a.m. on Sunday morning, 11-1/2 hours before the event.
Routh has at least two prior felony convictions, both in North Carolina, according to the criminal complaint.
In 2002, Routh pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered fully automatic weapon, defined under North Carolina law as a weapon of mass destruction, according to the county attorney’s office, and received a suspended sentence. He was also convicted of possession of stolen goods in 2010.
Trump’s campaign schedule will remain unchanged, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. He is scheduled to unveil a new cryptocurrency venture at X on Monday night and will host a town hall in Michigan on Tuesday and a rally on Wednesday in New York.
Trump blamed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, for the apparent assassination attempt. He claimed the suspected gunman was acting on Democrats’ “particularly inflammatory language,” though authorities have yet to offer evidence of any motive.
“Their rhetoric is getting shots fired at me, when I’m the one who’s going to save the country, and they’re the ones who are destroying the country — both from the inside and the outside,” he said, according to Fox.
On Sunday, Harris told X: “Violence has no place in America.”
Speaking at an event in Philadelphia on Monday, Biden said: “In America, we resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box, not at the point of a gun.”
Local and federal authorities were expected to provide updates at a press conference at 4 p.m.
Secret services under pressure
The Secret Service, which protects US presidents, presidential candidates and other high-level officials, has been under intense scrutiny since Trump’s previous assassination attempt.
This led to the resignation of principal Kimberly Cheatle. The agency beefed up Trump’s security detail after the July 13 attack, in which the gunman was shot by responding agents.
The agency “needs more help,” including possibly more staff, Biden told reporters Monday, adding, “Thank God the president is OK.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who convened a bipartisan task force to investigate the first assassination attempt, said in an interview with Fox News that Congress would also look into the latest incident.
“We need accountability,” said Johnson, who also called for more resources to protect Trump.
Cheatle’s replacement, Deputy Director Ronald Rowe, traveled to Florida after Sunday’s assassination attempt, according to multiple news outlets. Rowe, who took over after Cheatle resigned in July, told Congress on July 30 that he was “ashamed” of the security lapses in the previous attack.
Rowe had been with the 7,800-member Secret Service for 25 years, according to an official biography, rising to the agency’s No. 2 position before being promoted in July.
The suspect is a supporter of Ukraine
Ruth is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and traveled there after Russia invaded in 2022, seeking to recruit foreign fighters. Ukrainian officials distanced themselves from Ruth on Monday, and the International Legion, where many foreign fighters serve in Ukraine, said it had no ties to Ruth.
X, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles under Routh’s name contained messages of support for Ukraine, as well as statements describing Trump as a threat to US democracy.
“@POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. The Trumps must be MASA …make America slaves master again. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we can’t lose,” he wrote a post on X, tagged Biden .
Reuters was unable to confirm that the accounts belonged to the suspect. Public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed hours after Sunday’s incident.
Harris and other Democrats have cast Trump as a danger to US democracy, citing his bid to reverse his 2020 election loss, which led to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Harris has pledged unwavering support for Ukraine if elected.
Trump has expressed skepticism about the amount of US aid to Ukraine and has pledged to end the war immediately if elected. He told Reuters last year that Ukraine may have to cede some territory to win peace.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, posted and then deleted a message on the social networking site on Sunday, questioning why no one had tried to assassinate Biden or Harris. In a subsequent post on Monday, Musk, who has endorsed Trump, said he was joking.
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