“You might be free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in an apparently self-published guide in 2023, “Ukraine’s Unwinnable Battle,” which described the previous president as a “idiot” and “buffoon” for each the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and the “large blunder” of leaving the Iran nuclear deal.
Routh wrote that he as soon as voted for Trump and should take a part of the blame for the “little one that we elected for our subsequent president that ended up being brainless.”
Routh, 58, was arrested Sunday after authorities say he stalked the GOP presidential nominee as he golfed in West Palm Seaside, Florida, with a AK-47-style rifle in an obvious assassination try thwarted by the Secret Service.
Three officers who recognized Routh spoke to The Related Press on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate the continuing investigation and seek for a motive.
By his voluminous on-line footprint, public data, information interviews and movies, an image emerged of Routh as a person with a prison previous, loads of outrage and shifting politics.
His over 500 posts on X confirmed his views starting from the left to the fitting, together with help for politicians resembling Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Nicki Haley, in addition to Trump.
Voter data present he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most just lately voting in individual through the state’s Democratic main in March.
Routh additionally made 19 small donations totaling $140 since 2019 to ActBlue, a political motion committee that helps Democratic candidates, in keeping with federal marketing campaign finance data.
In a tweet in June 2020, after the police killing of George Floyd, Routh stated then-President Trump may win reelection by issuing an government order to prosecute police misconduct. Nonetheless, lately, his posts seem to have soured on Trump, and he expressed help for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the present Democratic presidential nominee.
“DEMOCRACY is on the poll and we can’t lose,” he wrote on X in April in help of Biden.
In July, following the assassination try on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, a publish on Routh’s account urged Biden and Harris to go to these wounded within the taking pictures and attend the funeral of the firefighter who was killed.
“Trump won’t ever do something for them,” Routh wrote. “Present the world what compassion and humanity is all about.”
In his guide, listed on Amazon and considered by the AP, Routh famous: “I get so bored with folks asking me if I’m a Democrat or Republican as I refuse to be put in a class.”
The world can be higher it have been run by ladies, he wrote within the guide that has hyperlinks to his web site and X account, as a result of “plainly the totality of the world’s issues revolve round males with large insecurity and childlike intelligence and habits.”
He posted often on social media about Ukraine and different conflicts, and he had an internet site looking for to boost cash and recruit volunteers to struggle for Kyiv. A photograph of the wiry, wild-haired Routh on his web site exhibits him smiling, carrying a T-shirt and jacket adorned with U.S. flags.
“Battle and die to cease aggression,” he posted on X in February 2023 about Ukraine. “Everybody needs to be outraged and serving to.”
“That is about good versus evil,” Routh stated in a video circulating on-line. And in a tweet, he stated, “I’m going to struggle and die for Ukraine.”
Video shot by the AP confirmed Routh at a small demonstration in Kyiv’s Independence Sq. in in April 2022, two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of the nation.
A placard he was holding stated: “We can’t tolerate corruption and evil for one more 50+ years. Finish Russia for our children.” He wore a blue vest with the U.S., flag on the again.
That very same day, he additionally visited a makeshift memorial to “Foreigners killed by Putin.”
However Routh by no means served within the Ukrainian military or labored with its army, stated Oleksandr Shahuri of the Foreigners Coordination Division of the Ukrainian Floor Forces Command.
Shahuri advised AP that Routh periodically contacted the Worldwide Legion of Ukraine with what he described as “nonsensical concepts” that “can greatest be described as delusional.”
Routh appeared in a video standing in entrance of the U.S. Capitol and expressing frustration that Ukraine wasn’t taking extra of the Afghan commandos he tried to recruit.
“They’re afraid that anyone and all people is a Russian spy,” he advised information web site Semafor in 2023.
Earlier this yr, he even tweeted at singers Bruno Mars and Dave Matthews to prepare a “We’re the World”-style effort for Kyiv. “We’d like an emotional tribute music for Ukraine as help stalls,” he wrote. “I’ve lyrics and music.”
Routh additionally tweeted to former basketball star Dennis Rodman, asking for assist lifting sanctions towards North Korea to ease pressure with the nation. In one other, he invitations a dozen protesters in Hong Kong to remain at his Hawaii house to flee a Chinese language crackdown.
Routh lived most of his life in Greensboro, North Carolina, the place his run-ins with regulation enforcement included a 2002 felony conviction for possessing a weapon of mass destruction. Whereas court docket data don’t give particulars concerning the case, a newspaper story on the time stated the arrest adopted a three-hour, armed standoff with police at a roofing enterprise. State data listed him because the proprietor.
Data additionally present Routh was convicted of a felony rely of possession of stolen items in 2010, in addition to misdemeanors together with illegally carrying a hid weapon, a hit-and-run incident, rushing and driving with a revoked license. In every case, a decide sentenced Routh to both probation or a suspended sentence, permitting him to flee jail time.
It was not instantly clear how Routh was in a position to receive a weapon. In most states, it’s typically forbidden for an individual convicted of a felony to buy or possess a firearm.
In 2018, Routh moved to the small city of Kaaawa, Hawaii, about 45 minutes exterior Honolulu, to go in enterprise together with his grownup son constructing small picket sheds. In line with his LinkedIn web page, the buildings would “assist tackle the best homelessness fee in the US because of unparalleled gentrification.”
“All of us are bored with seeing the homeless folks all around the island with nowhere to go,” he advised Honolulu’s Star-Advertiser in 2019.
Nobody answered the door Sunday at his blue stucco home close to the seashore that’s colorfully painted with picket cutouts of fish. A white pickup truck with a Biden-Harris bumper sticker and a flat tire was within the driveway.
Neighbor Christopher Tam stated Routh saved to himself and was respectful, cordial and sort.
“It’s simply been very stunning,” Tam stated. “If he did have something to do with it, it’s very surprising to us.”