The man named as the suspect in a possible assassination attempt near Donald Trump‘s Florida golf club had a history of donating to Democrats and posted about the former president losing the election.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is in custody after he allegedly pointed 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 filings revealed.
The donations totaled more than $140 and were earmarked for individual 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates including Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Routh’s social media was filed with anti-Trump rhetoric and previously said that ‘Democracy is on the ballot,’ reported The New York Post.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is in custody after he allegedly pointed an AK-47 at the former president while he was golfing
Routh is a registered Democrat and was arrested in 2002 for having ‘weapons of mass destruction’
The would-be shooter was convicted more than two decades ago with possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to a more than two-decades old News & Record report.
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 wielding a firearm.
He also admitted on social media in June 2020 that he did vote for Trump in 2016, but was hoping as president he would be ‘different and better’ than how he was as a candidate.
‘We all were greatly disappointed and it seems you are getting worse and devovling; are you retarded,’ Routh wrote at the time. ‘I will be glad when you gone (sic).’
The incident comes as Trump’s security detail has been ramped up in the two months after the former president was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
He was was calm and emotionless when he was arrested Sunday
Routh has donated more than $140 to the Democratic political action committee ActBlue
Following that assassination attempt Routh tweeted at Biden that he should visit the victims and attend the funeral of the 50-year-old firefighters who was killed, according to the Post.
‘You should visit the victims in the hospital of the trump rally victims and attend the funeral of the fireman that died; Trump certainly never would. SHOW THE WORLD WHAT REAL LEADERS DO,’ he posted on July 16.
His social media also showed he strongly supports Ukraine in its war against Russia and Taiwan in its struggle against China.
In one reply to a post from X owner Elon Musk, Routh said he was interested in buying a rocket from him.
‘I would like to buy a rocket from you. I wish to load it with a warhead for Putin’s Black Sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please. It can be old and used as not returning,’ Routh wrote.
