Ryan Routh: Who is the man detained after apparent Trump assassination attempt?

On Sunday September 15, US Secret Service agents opened fire on a suspected gunman, after spotting a rifle poking out of bushes close to where Donald Trump was playing golf.

The incident, which took place at one of the former president's golf courses, is understood to be an assassination attempt.

The gunman fled the scene and dropped his weapon, and was later arrested. An AK-style firearm was recovered at the scene and no injuries were reported.

US authorities said the man they detained was 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, of Kaaawa, Hawaii.

Here is what we know so far about the man suspected of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump.

Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.

Routh has ties to both Hawaii, where he owns a small construction company, and North Carolina, where public records show he registered as an "unaffiliated" voter without a party in 2012.

According to Routh's LinkedIn page, his company Camp Box Honolulu builds storage units and tiny houses in Hawaii.

According to public records, Routh voted in North Carolina's Democratic primary in March of this year. His social media accounts appear to show he had voted for former president Trump in 2016, but had withdrawn his support in 2020.

"I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointed," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"And it seems you are getting worse and devolving. I will be glad when you [are] gone.”

Routh also mentioned Trump in a a self-published book, almost 300 pages long. The work appears on Amazon entitled: “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity.”

In the book, he describes the former US president’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 as a “tremendous blunder” that drove Tehran closer to Moscow, which it then supplied with drones that have caused devastation across Ukraine.

Routh has also commented on the first assassination attempt on Trump, which took place in July.

Routh encouraged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to visit those wounded in the incident, and said: “Trump will never do anything.”

He expressed his support for Ukraine both in his book and in posts on X, saying he was willing to die in the fight and that “we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground.”

Routh travelled to Ukraine in 2022. In a series of Facebook posts he attempted to enlist Afghan conscripts to fight in the war.

A representative from Ukraine’s foreign legion confirmed with ITV News' partner organisation CNN that Routh had contacted them several times.

They confirmed he was never part of the military unit in which overseas volunteers fight.

Oleksandr Shaguri, an officer of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Land Forces Command, told CNN over the phone that “the best way to describe his messages is – delusional ideas.”

“He was offering us large numbers of recruits from different countries but it was obvious to us his offers were not realistic. We didn’t even answer, there was nothing to answer to. He was never part of the Legion and didn’t cooperate with us in any way.”

Whilst Routh was at an anti-Russia demonstration in Ukraine, he held a placard which read: “We cannot tolerate corruption and evil for another 50+ years. End Russia for our kids.”

Routh is a father, with his eldest son, Oran, describing him as a "loving and caring father, and honest hardworking man".

He told CNN: “I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent."

Want an expert briefing on US politics and the presidential race? Listen to our latest podcast Talking Politics USA...