CNN
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Ryan Wesley Routh put his enmity toward Donald Trump – the man he once supported but then dismissed as an “idiot,” a “buffoon” and a “fool” – at the center of a rambling and fanciful worldview that also fixated on Ukraine, Taiwan, North Korea, and what he called the “end of humanity.”
The 58-year-old, who was detained Sunday in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on the former president, protested in Kyiv after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and committed his ideas to paper in a self-published 291-page book.
Authorities suspect Routh, who owns a small construction company in Hawaii, was planning to attack the former President as he played a round of golf on Sunday, with US Secret Service agents firing at a man with a rifle in the bushes near the golf club. He was later apprehended after being stopped on a nearby highway.
Routh appeared in federal court Monday and was charged with two counts, possession of a firearm while a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Kristy Militello, the federal public defender assigned to Routh’s case, declined to comment after the hearing.
For years, he criticized not only Trump but himself, describing Trump as “my choice” in the 2016 presidential election but later writing that he is “man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake.”
Here’s what we know about Routh so far.
Routh’s thoughts and fixations on global politics appeared idealistic to some who came across him, but his writings show how he became increasingly militant about the geopolitical forces he railed against.
His business pursuits, by contrast, appear relatively unremarkable. On Routh’s LinkedIn page, he said he started a company in 2018 called Camp Box Honolulu in Hawaii, which builds storage units and tiny houses. A story in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said he donated a structure for homeless people.
During his court appearance on Monday, Routh said he was making $3,000 a month before his arrest, had “zero funds” in savings and had no assets beyond two trucks in Hawaii.
Routh also has ties to North Carolina, where public records show he registered as an “unaffiliated” voter without a party in 2012. He voted in that state’s Democratic primary in March of this year, according to public records.
Records from the state dating back decades also show Routh has had previous scrapes with the law – including being arrested in 2002 after he was pulled over by police and allegedly put his hand on a firearm, and then drove off and barricaded himself in a business premises.
He has also been involved in several court cases since the 1990s, with authorities repeatedly accusing him of failing to pay his taxes on time. Separately, judges have ordered him to pay tens of thousands of dollars to plaintiffs in various civil suits.
Routh became animated when writing about Trump, and he frequently weighed in on US and global current events on social media.
In June 2020, Routh appeared to say that he had voted for Trump in 2016, but that he had since withdrawn his support of the former president.
“I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I will be glad when you gone.”
Routh also mentioned Trump in his book, which appears on Amazon without a publisher listed, and is titled “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 that publication, he described 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.
He even commented on the first assassination attempt on Trump, when the former president was wounded by a gunshot during a rally in Pennsylvania in July. Routh encouraged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to visit those wounded in the incident, saying: “Trump will never do anything.”
Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s 2022 invasion also became central to Routh’s philosophy; he expressed support for Ukraine in dozens of X posts that year, saying he was willing to die in the fight and that “we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground.”
He also visited Ukraine in 2022, according to video and photos geolocated by CNN and interviews he gave to international media during his time there. In a flurry of Facebook posts last year, he tried to enlist Afghan conscripts to fight in the war, presenting himself as an off-the-books liaison for the Ukrainian government.
A representative from Ukraine’s foreign legion confirmed with CNN that Routh had contacted them several times but said 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.”
Newsweek Romania journalist Remus Cernea first met Routh in Kyiv’s Independence Square in June 2022, where the American was rallying people to join the foreign legion or to help Ukraine through various humanitarian aid organizations.
“For me, it’s a surprise because I viewed him as an idealistic innocent genuine person, without any murderous instinct,” Cernea told CNN following news of Routh’s detention in the United States.
According to Cernea, Routh described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a “black and white… good versus evil” conflict.
In an interview with AFP news agency from Kyiv in April 2022, Routh said: “Putin is a terrorist, and he needs to be ended, so we need everybody from around the globe to stop what they’re doing and come here now and support the Ukrainians to end this war.”
He also weighed in on the political situations in Afghanistan, Taiwan and North Korea in his book. Routh has repeatedly voiced support for Taiwan and previously called for international intervention to protect the island against potential Chinese encroachment.
Routh’s eldest son, Oran, told CNN via text that Routh was “a loving and caring father, and honest hardworking man.”
“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,” Oran wrote.
But other people have shared testimonies of tense interactions with Routh.
Hawaiian business owner Saili Levi told CNN he had paid Routh $3,800 up front to build a trailer for his business. But when Levi came to Routh’s shop to review his work, it was shoddy, he said.
Levi said when he asked Routh to improve the work via email, Routh ranted at him.
“He just kind of started ranting about, you know, ‘You think because you have money, you’re better than me?’” Levi said, adding that Routh also mentioned having gone to Ukraine to fight against Russia.
“I kind of decided maybe I should just let it go for the sake of my family,” Levi recalled.
Curt Devine, Isabelle Chapman and Daniel Medina contributed to this report.
