Feds charge suspect with gun crimes as Trump blames ‘rhetoric of Biden and Harris’
- The suspect’s cellphone was in the vicinity of Trump’s golf course for 12 hours, prosecutors say
- Trump blames Democrats: ‘Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying’
The man who went to former President Trump’s golf course allegedly intent on killing him staked him out from a row of trees on the edge of the course for more than 11½ hours, biding his time undetected until an agent saw his rifle poking out of the greenery, prosecutors said Monday.
As Ryan Wesley Routh was charged in federal court Monday, an affidavit written by Secret Service Special Agent Mark A. Thomas said Routh’s cellphone was in the vicinity of the tree line near Trump International Golf Club at 1:59 a.m. Sunday — nearly 12 hours before a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle at 1:31 p.m.
By the time the agent fired a service weapon in the direction of the rifle, Trump was less than 500 yards away.
A witness then saw a man, later identified as Routh, flee the area, enter a Nissan sport utility vehicle and speed away.
Routh appeared prepared for the hours-long wait for Trump: He had a plastic bag containing food, according to the affidavit filed by prosecutors, along with a digital camera, two bags including a backpack, and a loaded semi-automatic style rifle with a scope.
The serial number on the rifle was obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye, and Thomas wrote that he believed it was not manufactured in Florida and had previously traveled in interstate or foreign commerce.
Routh’s Nissan, the affidavit says, had a license plate belonging to a stolen Ford truck — often an indication that someone is trying to evade authorities.
In a brief appearance before U.S. Magistrate Ryon McCabe Monday at the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. courthouse in West Palm Beach, Routh was shackled at his wrists and ankles and wearing a navy blue federal custody uniform. He did not enter a plea to the charges.
After the charges were read, Routh said, “Yes, your honor.”
After hearing Routh had no significant assets, the magistrate agreed to the appointment of a public defender and scheduled bail and arraignment for later this month.
U.S. Atty. Adam McMichael, representing the Southern District of Florida, indicated prosecutors believe him to be a flight risk and would seek to keep him behind bars pending trial.
As the Secret Service faced new scrutiny on Monday, Trump blamed the violence on Democrats who cast him as a threat to democracy.
“The Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate, and all of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, Political Opponent, ME, has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust,” Trump posted on X Monday.
“Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!”
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris and he acted on it,” Trump said of the gunman in a Monday morning interview with Fox News Digital. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at.”
Though Democrats have called Trump’s own rhetoric divisive, they largely avoided criticizing his comments Monday and instead stayed silent or expressed relief that the attempt on Trump’s life was not successful.
President Biden, speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Monday morning, said he thanked God that Trump was not injured, but was concerned that the agency protecting the former president lacked resources.
“One thing I want to make clear is: The service needs more help,” Biden said. “And I think Congress should respond to their need.”
Pressed on what the Secret Service may need, Biden said: “They may decide whether they need more personnel or not.”
Biden later commended the Secret Service for their “expert handling of the situation.”
“Those of you who know me know this: In America, there is no place for political violence,” he said at an event in Philadelphia.
Routh was taken into custody Sunday after officers from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Martin County Sheriff’s Office located the Nissan as it traveled north on I-95. Around 2:14 p.m., Martin County sheriff’s deputies stopped the vehicle.
Bodycam footage of Routh’s arrest shared by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office showed Routh with his shirt lifted and arms above his head as he was pulled over more than 40 miles north of West Palm Beach.
After swarming his Nissan, armed deputies ordered him to get out of the vehicle.
“Driver, take two steps to your right,” a law enforcement officer bellowed. “Driver, walk straight back. Keep walking.”’
Routh emerged, wearing a bright orange short-sleeved T-shirt and dark sunglasses, and lifted his shirt up, seemingly to show he had no weapons. He was grabbed by two deputies who restrained his arms and handcuffed him.
When asked if he knew why he was being stopped, Routh indicated yes, the affidavit said.
Routh was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Officials said Routh could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the first charge, plus an additional five years if convicted of the second charge.
Back-to-back assassination attempts on Trump have historic echoes. In September 1975, President Ford escaped two attempts on his life in California.
Trump was unharmed in the incident. “It was certainly an interesting day!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night.
Trump thanked the Secret Service, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and law enforcement officers for their “incredible job.”
“My resolve is only stronger after another attempt on my life!’ he said in an email to supporters Monday. “I will never slow down. I will never give up. I WILL NEVER SURRENDER!”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told “Fox & Friends” Monday that he and his wife, Kelly, had been en route to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago, across the Intracoastal Waterway from the golf club, when the shooting occurred.
After a traffic delay, they met. He and Trump were briefed by acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe about 90 minutes later by phone, he said. Johnson praised the immediate actions of the agency — including officers who spotted the gun — but said it needs to do more for Trump.
“President Trump needs the most coverage of anyone,” Johnson said, attributing his survival to providence. “He’s the most attacked, he’s the most threatened.”
The agency needs “every asset available, and it will make more available if necessary,” he said. But “I don’t think it’s a funding issue. I think it’s a manpower allocation.”
Johnson praised “some really patriotic, great people working in the Secret Service” but blamed leadership, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, whom the House impeached in February before the charges were dismissed by the Senate. The department oversees the Secret Service.
“I have no faith in Secretary Mayorkas,” he said.
As the FBI and the Secret Service investigate the lapse in security, California Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) called for the Secret Service to speak before Congress on Monday.
“Two assassination attempts in 60 days on a former President & the Republican nominee is unacceptable,” Khanna wrote on X.
“The Secret Service must come to Congress tomorrow, tell us what resources are needed to expand the protective perimeter, & lets allocate it in a bipartisan vote the same day.”
The leaders of a bipartisan task force in Congress that is investigating the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania said Monday it has requested a briefing by the Secret Service on the Florida incident.
“We are thankful that the former President was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms,” Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said in a statement. “The Task Force will share updates as we learn more.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his state would also investigate the incident.
“There were multiple violations of state law,” DeSantis said at a Monday morning news conference in Orlando. “We also believe that there is a need to make sure that the truth about all this comes out in a way that is credible.”
“I look at the federal government, with all due respect to them, those same agencies that are prosecuting Trump in that jurisdiction are now going to be investigating this?” DeSantis added. “I just think that that may not be the best thing for this country.”
Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican who is a member of the House task force on July’s attempted assassination of Trump, said on Fox News on Sunday that the Secret Service had great agents on the ground but lacked strong leaders.
“The problem is you’ve got a Secret Service, at least in my opinion, and in the public’s eye, that is compromised and that it lacks in leadership,” Burchett said.
“They’re going to come to us for more money,” Burchett said of the Secret Service. ”I think they need to quit with the DEI hires and start putting qualified people out there in decision-making positions instead of what they’re doing right now.”
On Monday, Burchett appeared to call on American vigilantes to protect Trump.
“The best protection Donald Trump has right now comes from We the People,” Burchett posted on X.
Meanwhile, there was tension on social media over the role of public figures in stoking further violence.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, deleted a post Sunday that said: “No one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
Musk, who has endorsed Trump and interviewed him on X, wrote the post in response to a user who asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”
Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in the apparent assassination attempt on former President Trump, was in 2022 focused on lining up volunteers to help Ukraine win its war against Russia.
After the comment drew widespread outrage, Musk wrote a follow-up post: “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”
Trump’s former press secretary, Sean Spicer, needled Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) online when Jeffries criticized “extreme MAGA Republicans” as “the party of a national abortion ban and Trump’s Project 2025.”
“Based on the past 24 hours pretty sure it’s your side that’s the extreme one,” Spicer posted.
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