Political confusion and numerous arrests: Who is the suspected Trump assassin? | Donald Trump

Ryan Wesley Routh, the man suspected of a second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, has undergone shifting political beliefs that defy partisan definition.

Although records show that the 58-year-old former roofer has made small monetary donations to Democratic candidates in recent years, Routh has acknowledged voting for Trump in the 2016 election before embarking on an ideological odyssey whose goals seem disjointed and confusing.

He vehemently renounced his earlier support for Trump after finding a useful target in his attempt to recruit former Afghan fighters to fight on Ukraine's side in the war.

In a book apparently self-published in 2023, a man bearing Routh's name lays out his views on Ukraine and other issues, including the collapse of the West's nuclear deal with Iran, blaming himself for helping to elect a “brainless” president and calling on Iran to “assassinate Trump and me for this lapse in judgment and dismantling of the deal.”

But that alone does not capture the full scope of Routh's political shift. In 2020, in a series of Twitter posts, he endorsed the presidential candidacy of Tulsi Gabbard, then a Democratic congresswoman and now a vocal Trump supporter and ally who helped the former president prepare for the recent presidential debate against Kamala Harris. Gabbard, he wrote, “will tirelessly negotiate peace deals in Syria, Afghanistan and all troubled areas.”

He apparently voted for Joe Biden in the subsequent election, and as of Sunday, his car outside his home in Hawaii has a sticker reading “Biden-Harris,” although there is no indication of when in the past four years that sticker was put up. In January 2024, however, he floated the idea of ​​fielding a Republican ticket with Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy to fend off Trump.

Routh's political troublemaker nature was also evident in 2020, when he invited North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un – whom he described as “very smart and educated” – to vacation in Hawaii and offered to serve as an “ambassador and liaison” in his country's dispute with the United States. He also invited pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, who were demonstrating against mainland China's harsh dictates, to visit Hawaii and offered them free accommodation.

His WhatsApp profile read somewhat inappropriately: “Every day, each of us must do our part, even in the smallest of ways, to support human rights, freedom and democracy; each of us must help the Chinese.”

Routh's unstable political views seem to be reflected in his turbulent personal past.

Shortly after Russia's invasion in 2022, he traveled to Ukraine to apply to join its “international brigade” of foreign fighters. At the time, he told a Guardian journalist that he expected to be rejected because he lacked military experience – and apparently he was. Instead, he announced that he would put up national flags from around the world in the center of Kyiv, form a human chain around them and shout: “Putin, here I am.” He expected that a Russian bombardment of this international protest would provoke a global reaction.

Routh has also been arrested at least eight times, CNN reported. In 2002, he was charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction in Greensboro, his hometown of North Carolina, after he was stopped by traffic police who found a concealed weapon in his vehicle.

He fled the scene and drove to his roofing business, local media reported, where he barricaded himself for three hours. He was subsequently charged with possession of a fully automatic machine gun – described in court documents as a “weapon of mass destruction” – concealed possession of a weapon, driving without a valid license and resisting, delaying and obstructing prosecution.

Tracy Fulk, the officer filing the lawsuit, told Wired that Routh was known to police at the time of his arrest, adding that she thought he was “either dead or in jail by now.” She added, “I had no idea he had moved on and was continuing his antics.”

She described the night of his arrest in 2002: “One night I recognized him in his vehicle. I knew he didn't have a license, so I stopped him right in front of his roofing business. He stopped, and as I approached his car, he pulled a bag out of the middle of the seat, and I saw a gun.

“Of course, I pulled out my gun and started saying, 'Hey! Show me your hands, show me your hands.' And he just pulled into his driveway and ran into his house. So we ended up having a [Special Response Team] “There was an operation and a standoff for a few hours before they came in and we arrested him.”

Routh avoided prison for the incident after a judge imposed a suspended sentence and probation.

Tina Cooper, 58, a former employee of Routh's roofing business, told the Independent her former boss was known in the area for doing “stupid shit”.

“He had threatened to blow up the entire Greensboro Police Department, it was all documented in the police reports,” Cooper said.

Routh wasn't always on the wrong side of the law. In 1991, at age 25, he was named a “super citizen” and awarded an Oscar for law enforcement by the Greensboro chapter of the International Union of Police Associations after helping a woman defend herself against an alleged rapist, The Washington Post reported.

In the 2022 interview at the Ukrainian border, Routh said he left his construction business in Hawaii to “get everything done and get out of the city.” Of his wife and three children, then in their twenties, he said, “They can take care of themselves; they don't need a father anymore.” He explained that his trip to Ukraine was a “one-way ticket” – but he later returned to the United States.

He was clearly loyal in at least one respect, explaining to the Guardian why he always seemed to carry a US flag in Ukraine. “I want to make sure that if the Russians kill me, they know who they are killing,” he said.

“I am American.”