A Gunman Got Close to Trump Again, Raising More Questions About Political Violence

Trump assassination attempt: Gunman with AK-47 stopped at Florida golf course

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

A Secret Service agent shot at a gunman who aimed an AK-47-style rifle toward Donald Trump on Sunday as the former president played golf at his West Palm Beach club.

The man fled but left behind the weapon, a scope, and a GoPro camera, allowing deputies to arrest him 45 minutes later on Interstate 95.

The episode marks the second apparent attempt on Trump’s life in 9 weeks and amplifies fears that the 2024 campaign has become a magnet for political violence.

Trump had reached the fifth hole of his Trump International course when an agent spotted the muzzle of a rifle poking through a chain-link fence roughly 400 yards away, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters. The agent opened fire, sending the suspect sprinting to a black Nissan SUV. The man abandoned the rifle and other gear in the shrubbery, jumped into the vehicle, and sped off as witnesses snapped photos of the license plate, Bradshaw said. Deputies stopped 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh on the highway and took him into custody without a struggle.

Court papers filed Monday in West Palm Beach federal court charge Routh with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Prosecutors told Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe they will seek additional counts tied to the attempted assassination. Routh said little during the brief hearing except to acknowledge he had no cash for an attorney; a public defender was appointed and a detention hearing set for September 23.

Sunday’s incident follows a July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a 20-year-old gunman perched on a nearby roof fired 8 rounds, grazing Trump’s right ear, killing one spectator and wounding two others. That attack triggered bipartisan outrage and a congressional probe into Secret Service procedures, yet critics say the agency has not explained how another armed individual managed to slip within range of the Republican nominee.

Bradshaw conceded the golf course presents a harder perimeter than a contained arena. “It is lined for 2 miles with shrubbery and trees,” he said, adding that Trump was not in a high-risk category that would have mandated the closure of adjoining streets. The Secret Service said in a statement that protective methods “can and will be adjusted” as threats evolve.

Routh’s digital footprint paints a picture of a man increasingly fixated on Ukraine’s war and American politics. Posts on X, formerly Twitter, show him berating Trump for abandoning Kyiv and urging President Joe Biden to keep arms flowing. “I am willing to fight and die for Ukraine,” he wrote in one 2022 entry. Interviews with The New York Times that year placed him in Kyiv trying to recruit Afghan veterans for the front lines, though Ukrainian officials said he never served in their volunteer units.

The self-employed roof contractor has a string of prior arrests stretching back to the 1990s, court filings show. North Carolina records list convictions for possessing a weapon of mass destruction—an automatic machine gun—and for resisting officers. He received probation in both cases. A 2003 search of his Greensboro home turned up fully automatic rifles, hand grenades and a half-inch anti-tank gun, according to an affidavit unsealed Monday.

Republicans swiftly blamed hostile rhetoric for encouraging violence. “They tried to stop Trump in the courts, then they tried to stop him with a bullet—and now another gun,” Senator JD Vance wrote on X. Democrats countered that Routh’s online screeds bear no resemblance to party messaging. “We know absolutely nothing about motive,” Senator Chris Murphy told CNN, urging lawmakers to await the FBI investigation.

Trump thanked law enforcement in an email to supporters Sunday night and vowed he would “never slow down.” Speaking to Fox News Digital, he framed the episode as further evidence of a nation on edge: “We have to restore law and order; we have to bring back confidence.” His campaign said he would proceed with planned town-halls in Michigan and Wisconsin this week under what aides called heightened security protocols.

President Biden called Trump after the arrest to express relief he was safe, the White House said. Vice President Kamala Harris posted that “violence has no place in America,” echoing a statement she issued after the Pennsylvania shooting. FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed the bipartisan leaders of the House task force investigating the Butler attack and promised a full forensic review of Routh’s phone and vehicle.

The rapid arrest owes much to a witness who saw the suspect jump into the Nissan and followed at a distance while relaying mile-marker updates to 911. Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said the tip allowed deputies to throw down stop sticks and box the SUV within 10 minutes. Inside the vehicle, agents recovered a second rifle, a pistol and a bag of ammunition, according to an FBI affidavit.

Gun-control groups renewed calls for tougher background checks, noting Routh legally purchased one rifle in 2020 before his felony record became disqualifying. “This is the poster case for why every sale needs a check,” Kris Brown, president of Brady United, told reporters. The campaign arm of the National Rifle Association did not respond to a request for comment, though the group has argued that determined assailants skirt laws regardless.

Sunday’s episode raises awkward questions for federal agencies already under scrutiny. The Secret Service reassigned five members of Trump’s protective detail after Butler, including the special agent in charge, yet Acting Director Ronald Rowe testified last month that no “single catastrophic failure” had occurred. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he will convene an emergency briefing this week and may subpoena internal emails related to the golf-course layout.

Background

Previous attempts on presidential and major-party candidates have been mercifully rare in modern times, but 2024 is testing that streak. In 2016, a British man tried to grab a police officer’s gun at a Trump rally in Las Vegas, telling investigators he intended to shoot the candidate. He received 12 months in federal prison. The last successful assassination of a presidential contender came in 1968 when Senator Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down in a Los Angeles hotel after winning the California primary.

Trump has occupied a singular place in the Secret Service playbook, serving first as a sitting president entitled to lifetime protection and now as a candidate drawing stadium-size crowds. Agents typically set up a cordon of magnetometers, countersniper teams and aerial surveillance for rallies, but golf courses require a roaming perimeter that moves hole-to-hole, a format the agency calls “advance-in-motion.” Critics say the model leaves too many sightlines open, especially when the protectee’s schedule is publicly known.

What’s Next

Routh is expected to face a superseding indictment within 30 days charging attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, a federal crime carrying up to life in prison. The FBI lab in Quantico will analyze his devices for communications with co-conspirators, while congressional investigators demand a classified briefing before lawmakers leave for the October recess. Trump campaign advisers say the former president may add a second public rally in Florida this weekend to project defiance, though a final decision awaits the Service’s security walk-through on Wednesday.

The twin shootings inject fresh volatility into a campaign already defined by talk of retribution and electoral subversion. Battleground-state sheriffs are quietly reassessing rally venues, while donors flood both parties with record cash framed as a shield against extremism. Whether the latest arrest spurs tougher gun rules or merely hardens partisan grievances will shape the final six weeks of a contest that now carries literal life-or-death stakes.