Alleged Trump gunman Ryan Wesley Routh had AK-47 gun and GoPro

The son of a male arrested over a plan to shoot Donald Trump during a game of golf has spoken out, as it’s revealed the accused had voted for the former president.

The man accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump said he voted for him in 2016 before souring on him, warning recently on social media that “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot” this November and adding: “We cannot afford to fail.”

Ryan Routh also has a lengthy criminal record and spent several months in Ukraine during the war as the self-appointed director of a group that aimed to bring foreign soldiers in to help in the fight against Russia, even saying he was willing to die himself.

Ryan Wesley Routh. Picture:X

The complicated picture of the 58-year-old emerged in the hours after he was allegedly spotted with an AK-47-style rifle at the former president’s Florida golf course. He fled when the Secret Service opened fire and was later arrested on a nearby highway.

Law enforcement officials alleged he left behind the rifle, two backpacks containing ceramic plates, and a GoPro camera which Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said he intended to use “to take pictures”.

He said he had offered “no statement right now in terms of his involvement in the incident”.

On Mr Routh’s account on X – the platform formerly known as Twitter – he posted in 2020: “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,” he added.

Authorities discovered an AK-47-style rifle, a GoPro and two backpacks with ceramic plates in them at the suspect’s alleged sniper’s nest on the golf course. Picture: X

In April this year, when President Joe Biden was still the Democratic candidate for November’s election, Mr Routh directed a post at him which said Mr Trump wanted to “make Americans slaves again master”.

“DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose, he said.

“We cannot afford to fail. The world is counting on us to show the way.”

He also pushed Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy – two Republicans who unsuccessfully sought the party’s presidential nomination in a primary race against Mr Trump – to team up and “create a winning ticket that we can all get behind”.

A car which is believed to be that of the accused gunman. Picture: Courtesy Martin County Sheriff

The New York Post reported that he had donated more than $US140 to Democrats running for office and liberal causes since 2019.

Mr Routh, who lives in Hawaii but is originally from North Carolina, also claimed on social media that he had hundreds or even thousands of Afghan soldiers who he wanted to send to assist in Ukraine, Taiwan and Haiti.

In the weeks after Russia’s invasion, he said he was willing to “FIGHT AND DIE” in Ukraine.

Law enforcement secures the area around Trump International Golf Club after an apparent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

Then in April this year, he directed a post to Elon Musk saying he wanted to “buy a rocket from you” and “load it with a warhead for Putins Black sea mansion bunker to end him”.

North Carolina outlets reported that Mr Routh’s criminal record dated back to 2002, when he barricaded himself inside a business with a machine gun in a three-hour standoff with police.

He was convicted of charges including possessing a weapon of mass destruction.

He had also been hit with charges for various driving offences and possessing stolen goods.

But Mr Routh’s son Oran told CNN it was not like his father “to do anything crazy, much less violent”, and that he hoped the incident with Mr Trump had been “blown out of proportion”.

“Ryan is my father, and I don’t have any comment beyond a character profile of him as a loving and caring father, and honest, hardworking man,” he said.

Law enforcement secures the area around Trump International Golf Club after the alleged attempted assassination. Picture: Getty/AFP

“I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion, because from the little I’ve heard, it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent. He’s a good father, and a great man, and I hope you can portray him in an honest light.”

Originally published as Alleged Trump gunman Ryan Wesley Routh had AK-47 gun and GoPro