Ryan Routh portrayed himself online as a man who built housing for homeless people in Hawaii, tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, and described his support and then disdain for Donald Trump – even urging Iran to kill him.
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“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in an apparently self-published book in 2023, Ukraine’s Unwinnable War, which described the former president as a “fool” and “buffoon” for both the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots and the “tremendous blunder” of leaving the Iran nuclear deal.
Routh also commented on China and North Korea. On X, formerly Twitter, Routh invites a dozen protesters in Hong Kong to stay at his Hawaii home to escape a Chinese crackdown. In another, he contacted former basketball star Dennis Rodman, asking for help lifting sanctions against North Korea to ease tension with the country.
Routh, who was charged with two counts of illegal firearms possession on Monday, wrote that he once voted for Trump and must take part of the blame for the “child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless”.
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The 58-year-old was arrested on Sunday after authorities say he stalked the Republican Party presidential nominee as he golfed in West Palm Beach, Florida, with an AK-47-style rifle in an apparent assassination attempt thwarted by the Secret Service.