The man named as a suspect in a possible assassination attempt near Donald Trump’s golf club in Florida had a history of donating to Democrats and posting about the former president’s election defeat.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is in custody after allegedly pointing an AK-47 at the former president while he was playing at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach on Sunday.
He is a registered Democrat and donated 19 times between September 2019 and March 2020 to the Democratic political action committee ActBlue, Federal Election Commission documents show.
The donations totaled more than $140 million and went to individual candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, including Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Routh’s social media was filled with anti-Trump rhetoric and he previously said that “democracy is on the ballot,” he reported. The New York Post.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is in custody after allegedly pointing an AK-47 at the former president while he was playing golf.
Routh is a registered Democrat and was arrested in 2002 for possessing “weapons of mass destruction.”
The would-be shooter was convicted more than two decades ago of possession of a weapon of mass destruction, according to a News & Record report from more than two decades ago.
Routh was 36 at the time and was arrested after a three-hour standoff with police when he barricaded himself inside a local roofing business in Greensboro, North Carolina, after speeding away from a traffic stop while brandishing a firearm.
She also admitted on social media in June 2020 that she voted for Trump in 2016, but hoped he would be “different and better” as president than he was as a candidate.
“We are all very disappointed and you seem to be getting worse and worse. Are you mentally retarded?” Routh wrote at the time. “I will be glad when you are gone.”
The incident comes as Trump’s security detail has been beefed up in the two months since the former president was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
He was calm and emotionless when he was arrested on Sunday.
Routh has donated more than $140 to the Democratic political action committee ActBlue
Following that assassination attempt, Routh tweeted to Biden that he should visit the victims and attend the funeral of the 50-year-old firefighters who died, according to the Post.
“They should visit the victims of Trump’s rally in the hospital and attend the funeral of the firefighter who died; Trump would certainly never do that. SHOW THE WORLD WHAT REAL LEADERS DO,” she posted on July 16.
His social media also showed that he strongly supports Ukraine in its war against Russia and Taiwan in its fight against China.
In a reply to a post by X owner Elon Musk, Routh said he was interested in buying a rocket from him.
“I want to buy a rocket from you. I want to load it with a warhead for Putin’s bunker in the Black Sea to finish him off. Can you please tell me the price? It may be old and used, because it won’t be coming back,” Routh wrote.