A Secret Service agent fired on a would-be gunman during an apparent assassination attempt at Donald Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday afternoon. Trump, who was golfing hundreds of yards away at the time, was unharmed. A 58-year-old suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, fled the scene but was later arrested. The incident comes 64 days after a young gunman attempted to kill Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Below is what happened, as it happened, in the first 24 hours after the incident.
According to a federal criminal complaint filed Monday, cell phone data indicates that Ryan Routh was in the vicinity of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club for nearly 12 hours before he was fired on and fled. So far, he has been charged with possession of a firearm as a felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. The weapon law enforcement found was an SKS assault rifle. The investigation into Routh is ongoing, and he will likely face additional more serious charges.
Authorities do not believe the suspect fired his rifle before fleeing.
Also on Monday, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw clarified that the suspect apparently didn’t have a clear shot at Trump at the time a Secret Service agent spotted his rifle and opened fire. Explained Bradshaw on Fox News’ Fox & Friends:
“From where [the gunman] was at, he would have had to wait for the president to get up to that hole and then turn and face going toward the area he was at. It doesn’t appear to me, knowing what I know about the terrain there and where we are looking at, that he had a clear shot from there to where the president was before he would make the turn to come that way.
In a Truth Social post late Sunday, he praised them for doing an “ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING” job:
I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes - It was certainly an interesting day! Most importantly, I want to thank the U.S. Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his Office of brave and dedicated Patriots, and, all of Law Enforcement, for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me, as the 45th President of the United States, and the Republican Nominee in the upcoming Presidential Election, SAFE. THE JOB DONE WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING. I AM VERY PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!
She released a second, longer statement on Sunday night:
President Biden also released an additional statement condemning “political violence”:
I am relieved that the former president is unharmed. There is an active investigation into this incident as law enforcement gathers more details about what happened. As I have said many times, there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country, and I have directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former president’s continued safety.
Suspect Ryan Routh had tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine, said he once supported Trump but then turned on him
A few months after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Routh traveled to Kyiv in an attempt to help Ukraine defend itself. Prior to going, he had expressed a willingness to fight and die for the cause. While in Ukraine, he gave an interview about his efforts to Newsweek Romania:
He also spoke with the New York Times in March 2023 about his efforts to recruit fighters. The paper identified him as “a former construction worker from Greensboro, North Carolina”:
With Legion growth stalling, Ryan Routh, a former construction worker from Greensboro, N.C., is seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. Mr. Routh, who spent several months in Ukraine last year, said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest.
“We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” he said in an interview from Washington.
It is not clear whether he has succeeded, but one former Afghan soldier said he had been contacted and was interested in fighting if it meant leaving Iran, where he was living illegally.
According to a now suspended Twitter/X account that appeared to belong to Routh, he voted for Trump in 2016, then supported Biden in 2020, after initially supporting Tulsi Gabbard in the Democratic primaries.
Here’s a June 2020 tweet directed at Trump:
While you were my choice in 2106, I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving; are you retarded; I will be glad when you gone
In the last tweet he send with his account, days after the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, Routh asked Kamala Harris to visit the victims of the attack:
You and Biden should visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered fireman. Trump will never do anything for them….show the world what compassion and humanity is all about.
The Times reports Routh also may have been involved in a previous incident involving a firearm more than two decades ago:
A man with the same name and similar age as Mr. Routh was arrested in 2002 in Greensboro, N.C., after barricading himself inside a building with a fully automatic weapon, according to the Greensboro News & Record newspaper. The newspaper said the man was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a fully automatic machine gun. It is not clear how the charges were resolved.
The Trump-supporting X owner is once again interjecting with commentary that is both obnoxious and dangerous:
Reports CNN:
U.S. intelligence officials recently briefed Donald Trump’s campaign about new indications that Iran was planning to escalate attacks on the former president and those around him. … The intelligence briefing given in recent days related to potential physical and cybersecurity attacks, adding to the overall elevated security threat against Trump.
According to an expert who spoke with the Washington Post:
Though the weapon shown in a photo shared by law enforcement has a curved magazine most commonly associated with the well-known AK-47 rifle and its variants, the body more closely resembles an SKS-type rifle, [Armament Research Services director N.R. Jenzen-Jones] wrote in a message.
SKS-type rifles are semiautomatic weapons that chamber 7.62mm rounds. They are patterned off a design that originated in the Soviet Union, but can be purchased commercially in the United States. The standard SKS is not a precision rifle, Jenzen-Jones said. Even with an added scope, the rifle is not the best choice for what is potentially a longer-range engagement, as it is still limited by other physical characteristics such as manufacturing tolerances and ammunition.
Trump is arguably most exposed when he’s golfing, as the New York Times reports:
Although members of Mr. Trump’s protective detail are always close at hand, the agency’s approach to guarding the former president on his courses has been inconsistent, even during appearances at semipublic events like invitational golf tournaments.
In some instances, Secret Service personnel accompanying Mr. Trump have used hand-held magnetometers to screen people for weapons. In others, spectators, vendors and reporters have walked alongside Mr. Trump without being searched at all. Agents sometimes warn people from getting too close to Mr. Trump, but the former president has usually embraced a laid-back atmosphere, inviting people to pose for pictures or talk with him. …
Mr. Trump generally drives his own golf cart, which, aside from the presidential seal, looks much like any other golf cart, devoid of bullet-resistant glass or other overt protective measures. He is often alone, with the nearest agents yards away in their own carts.
That’s what he said in his second fundraising email about Sunday’s incident. The fundraising request the email links to adds, “I am safe and well, and no one was hurt. Thank God! But, there are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us.”
Per an interview with the New York Times:
“He said, ‘They took me off the course because there were shots fired,’” Graham said. He said the former president added that he had “500 cops” around him and told him he was OK. Graham recalled that Trump expressed gratitude for his Secret Service detail. “‘These people are awesome,’” the senator recalled the former president as saying.
Law-enforcement sources who spoke with the Associated Press identified the suspect detained by police as a 58-year-old man named Ryan Wesley Routh. A motive has not yet been determined.
Per the New York Times, Trump was on the course with longtime friend and campaign donor Steve Witkoff, as well as a few members of his staff, at the time of the incident. Trump has since returned to his Mar-a-Lago estate in neighboring Palm Beach.
This seems pretty unwise.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw explained during the press conference that the full course had not been cordoned off while Trump was golfing on Sunday, since he was not a sitting president: “If he was, we would have had the entire golf course surrounded. Because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”
A gunman at Trump’s golf course was close enough to shoot the former president, law-enforcement officials said during a press conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday evening. Officials gave an initial version of events during the first briefing on the second attempt on Trump’s life in less than three months.
The unnamed suspect was hiding in shrubbery along the golf course’s fence line running parallel to a main road and armed with an AK-47-style rifle and scope. He was estimated to be between 300 and 500 yards from Trump, who was out on the course playing golf with Secret Service protection. “With a rifle with a scope like that, that’s not a lot of difference,” said Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
A Secret Service agent positioned at least one hole ahead of Trump spotted the barrel of the rifle sticking through the fence and fired at least four shots in the gunman’s direction. The gunman fled, leaving behind a backpack containing plates for body armor and a GoPro camera that authorities believed he intended to use during the attempted assassination.
“We are not sure right now if the individual was able to take a shot at our agents,” Secret Service special agent in charge Rafael Barros said.
As the gunman ran, an eyewitness saw him get into a car and took a photo of the license plate that was sent to authorities, according to Bradshaw. License-plate readers on I-95 detected the vehicle driving northwest into another county, where sheriff’s deputies stopped the vehicle and apprehended the suspect. Bradshaw said the suspect did not make statements about the attack on Trump.
The Associated Press is also reporting that the gunman pointed a rifle into the golf club, but says it was an AK-style gun:
A man with an AK-style rifle pointed the firearm’s muzzle into Donald Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, as the former president was playing a round, prompting the U.S. Secret Service to open fire, according to three law enforcement officials. … The person dropped the weapon and fled in an SUV, and was later taken into custody in a neighboring county, the officials said. An AK-style firearm was recovered at the scene near Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach, two of the officials said. And no injuries were reported.
It’s not yet clear if Trump was within sight of the suspect, and if so, how that could have been allowed to happen so soon after a previous failed assassination attempt.
He says the FBI took custody of the suspect, who officers detained on I-95 shortly after the shooting. The suspect, who was not armed and had a calm demeanor when deputies detained him, was driving a vehicle wanted by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office in connection to the shooting.
The Washington Post reports:
According to two people briefed on the incident, the former president was golfing at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach early Sunday afternoon when [Secret Service] agents heard gunshots. He was taken away to a holding room at the club.
The Secret Service has long been concerned about Trump’s vulnerability on his golf courses, which remain open to parts of the public and are often near heavily trafficked areas.
No one was believed to have been hit by the shots, the people said.
CBS News reports:
A male with a high-powered rifle was seen near the Mar-a-Lago golf course in Florida around 2 p.m., two people familiar with the matter told CBS News. The man was pointing the rifle at the golf course where the former president was located at the time, and U.S. Secret Service agents engaged the suspect, firing multiple shots. The suspect attempted to flee, the sources said.
No motive has yet been determined, per the report. The FBI is currently leading the investigation. NBC News reports that the weapon recovered was an AR-15-style rifle:
Four senior law enforcement officials briefed on the shooting incident outside the Trump golf course say an AR-style rifle was recovered. One person is in custody and it is believed to be the person with the weapon outside the fenceline of the golf course where Trump was playing, the officials say.
In an email to his campaign fundraising list, Trump seemed to frame the incident as another attempt on his life:
There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL! … Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”
Harris has also released a statement, emphasizing her relief that Trump was not harmed:
Per a statement around 3:30 p.m. regarding a traffic stop: “The Martin County Sheriff’s Office has stopped a vehicle and taken a suspect into custody believed to be connected to a shooting incident at Trump International in Palm Beach County.”
Initial unconfirmed reports only indicate that Secret Service agents fired at a suspect.
CNN reports that:
A person has been detained in connection to the incident at Trump International Golf Club on Sunday, according to a law enforcement source. Secret Service fired at the suspect, according to multiple sources.
A long gun has been recovered, according to the source.
Officials believe an armed individual intended to target former President Donald Trump at his golf club, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The campaign released a statement that Trump was safe following a shooting. Other initial reports suggested that the shooting was random.
The Secret Service later released its own statement confirming the incident:
