KAAWA, Hawaii – Ryan Wesley Routh, a Hawaii man who is accused of stalking and attempting to assassinate former-President Donald Trump, painted a picture of himself online that included building housing for Hawaii’s homeless population, attempts at recruiting fighters to send to Ukraine to fight Russia and mixed feelings about Trump; writing a message to Iran in a book published on Amazon saying “you are free to assassinate Trump.”
Routh described the former president as a “fool” and a “buffoon” in his self-published book “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment and the Global Citizen-Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea and the end of Humanity.”
Routh, who is 58, was arrested on Sunday, September 15, 2024. Routh is accused of stalking Republican-nominee Trump while he golfed in West Palm Beach, Florida. This attempted assassination was stopped by the Secret Service.
This is not Routh’s first encounter with law enforcement. According to the News & Record of Greensboro, North Carolina, Routh was arrested back on December 16, 2002 after barricading himself in a business and engaging in a three-hour standoff with police. He was initially pulled over at approximately 10 p.m. on December 15, 2002 for a traffic stop but he put his hand on a firearm that was in his possession and drove away, barricading himself inside United Roofing, a Greensboro business that he operated.
As a result of this encounter, Routh was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction, which was a reference to a fully-automatic machine gun that was in his possession. He was additionally charged with resisting arrest, delaying and obstructing a law enforcement officer and driving while license revoked.
Court records additionally list cases involving possession of stolen property and passing bad checks.
It is not clear how Routh was able to obtain a firearm as in most states it is not lawful for a person convicted of a felony to obtain a firearm.