Former US President Donald Trump narrowly escaped a second assassination attempt at his Florida golf course on Sunday. A 58-year-old man, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, was detained in connection with the shooting, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) called an "apparent assassination attempt."
Currently, Trump is safe following the gunshots in his vicinity, as per his campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung. Sunday's assassination attempt against Trump comes around 2 months after an assassination attempt against the former POTUS in Pennsylvania's Butler, wherein he was shot in the ear.
Who is Ryan Wesley Routh?
Routh has a decades-long history of crime and violence. Trump's would-be assassin's most recent address is in Hawaii but he spent a large part of his life in North Carolina, CBS News said citing property records.
Routh owned Camp Box Honolulu, a shed-building company, and also donated a structure for homeless people.
He studied at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and graduated in 1998. Back in the 1990s, Routh was charged with writing bad checks.
In 2002, however, he was charged with a possession of a weapon of mass destruction, and a felony. Moreover, he was also charged with misdemeanors including a hit-and-run case, resisting arrest and a concealed weapons violation in another case.
Support for Ukraine, Democratic causes
Ryan Wesley Routh supported Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine war and has been supporting Democratic candidates and causes since 2019. In an interview, he claimed to be a strong supporter of Ukraine.
He also claimed that he went to the country at the start of the war with Russia to "fight" to support the Ukrainians. After reaching Kyiv, he helped in recruiting people to participate in the Russia-Ukraine war, Routh mentioned.
"We need everyone here fighting... that's why I'm in Kyiv, so every project that I promote is about getting people here to support the Ukrainians," Routh said. Many of his social media posts from 2022 indicate towards his strong support for Ukraine.
In one of the posts, he said that he was willing to die in the fight and "we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground." He also used his Facebook account to encourage foreigners to fight in the war.
"Afghan soldiers- Ukraine is somewhat interested in 3000 soldiers, so I need every soldier that has a passport to send me a copy of their passport to send to Ukraine," he wrote in a post in English and Pashto.
Moreover, North Carolina public records show he registered as an "unaffiliated" voter without a party in 2012. He voted in North Carolina's Democratic primary in March this year. He also contributed more than $100 to ActBlue, which processes donations for Democrats, CNN reported.
Did he support any other presidential candidates?
The 58-year-old reportedly supported Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley in the upcoming elections before they decided to quit the contest. In one of his social media posts, Routh urged them to not back down from the presidential race.
In another post on social media, he slammed Trump and wrote: "Democracy is on the ballot, and we cannot afford to lose." This is a commonly used slogan by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
He urged President Biden, who was then the Democratic Party's candidate, to focus his campaign on preserving "America's democracy and freedom." Routh had accused Trump of seeking to "enslave Americans under a master".