‘Free to assassinate’: Alleged would-be Trump shooter’s bizarre book resurfaces
The man who allegedly planned to shoot Donald Trump at his golf course in Florida previously wrote a deeply revealing book.
The man who allegedly planned to shoot Donald Trump at his golf course in Florida previously wrote a book in which he told readers and the Iranian regime they were “free to assassinate” the former US president.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested after allegedly fleeing from the Secret Service at Mr Trump’s course in West Palm Beach on Sunday, local time.
The FBI allege Routh spent nearly 12 hours on the perimeter of the golf course, starting in the early hours of the morning, lying in wait for Mr Trump in a grouping of bushes near the sixth hole.
The Secret Service, much criticised for its security failures after the first attempt on Mr Trump’s life in July, says Routh never had a line of sight on his target.
He allegedly tried to escape, without firing a shot, after his weapon was spotted poking out of some shrubbery.
Routh’s self-published book, rather long-windedly titled Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The fatal flaw of democracy, world abandonment and the global citizen; Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, WWIII and the End of Humanity, was self-published in February of 2023.
It mainly focuses on the war in Ukraine, which is defending itself against an invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the book does also mention Mr Trump, albeit rarely.
Specifically, Routh suggests he regrets voting for Mr Trump in 2016, because his election led to the termination of an Obama-administration era deal with Iran intended to stop its development of nuclear weapons.
“I must take part of the blame for the ret***ed child we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless, but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologise,” Routh writes.
“You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal.”
At another point, quite late in the book, Routh suggests rather chillingly that he is approaching the end of his life.
“As you might have figured out by now this story is also the conclusion of my life,” Routh says in a chapter titled “Conclude”.
“It has been my goal to make every country, leader and civilian around the world mad at me. While most hide in the shadows and cover their face for every photo I will sacrifice myself if need be to push the war and the world forward.
“I will certainly have made every citizen an enemy of me, but the goal is for them to hate me as much as Putin and hopefully render an even greater resolve.
“I am one insignificant man, so let the mafias and kill squads hunt me down and end my life. But if I have at least challenged one person to do better, or pushed one leader to ponder their decisions and actions, then maybe my life will be worth the meagre change.
“I can only hope that those I have pissed off will think just a little bit about their actions and how they affect others.
“I simply hope that some as crazy as I will continue the work that must be done after I am gone.
“Captain Obvious ends up who I must be for the short time that I have left. Please do not fail our neighbours and let my life be a waste of time.”
‘Not liked nor wanted’: Bitter experience in Ukraine
The book begins with Routh lamenting a recent, months-long trip to Ukraine, where he tried to join the war, but was turned away due to his lack of military experience.
He then attempted to recruit others and obtain military equipment to help the war effort, but ultimately “came up empty-handed”.
You get the impression that Routh was seen, by Ukrainian government officials, as more of a nuisance than a help.
“I personally have failed humanity and wasted five months with no measurable success,” Routh writes.
“I gave up and quit; the worst of humans. I am the failure, the hypocrite, the loser that wants the world to change but let communism beat me down and exhaust me and send me home.
“How could I have let this happen? A mere five months and I run for home, not even with the first bit of mud, or cold or the first bullet, and I am beaten and exhausted in the simplest elementary ground floor challenges of good and evil; and I fail.”
He describes his Ukraine expedition as “a childish idealistic endeavour that was unwinnable”.
There is more than a hint of bitterness in Routh’s account, such as when he complains about “the lack of appreciation for those that pay to travel Ukraine and risk death to fight for their freedom”. He claims there is a “total disregard for the sacrifice” of foreign fighters.
“Foreigners coming are met with no enthusiasm, respect, appreciation or support,” Routh says.
“Foreigners expend great sums of money to make their way to join the fight and are not even allowed to cross the border. Others go to the military recruiting office and are turned away.
“One would somewhat assume that volunteers coming to help defend a nation at war would be greeted with co-operation and support.
“It seems quite the opposite. Interactions with many government employees left it abundantly clear that we are not liked nor wanted.”
The complaints about Ukrainians’ alleged “lack of respect” for foreigners continues across multiple chapters.
Routh does, however, remain on those Ukrainians’ side, albeit pessimistically. He repeatedly argues that the war against Russia is “unwinnable” and Ukraine has been “set up for certain failure” by Western nations.
“It is impossible. There is no conceivable path that leads to a favourable outcome,” he writes.
“They are a fledgling democracy struggling for freedom. It is like a child that we have abandoned and then set up with mechanisms that ensure failure. It is a nasty joke that the world has played, and Ukraine is its victim.”
That paternalistic attitude permeates much of the book, as does the bitterness.
“When I get asked if I will return to Ukraine, my immediate response is NO. The bad in my mind always outweighs the good and I have really no interest in seeing Ukraine again,” Routh says.
“I am done trying to persuade Ukrainians to get involved and pushing them to help foreign volunteers. I am done.”
It all culminates at the beginning of Chapter 22, a good hundred pages later, which is subtly entitled “Ukraine does not want Help”.
“If it is not abundantly clear at this point; I still felt the need to dedicate a whole chapter to what I have been suggesting throughout this writing, that Ukraine does not want the worlds (sic) help,” he says.
“They want all the money and equipment, but they do not want foreigners to come and help them – IS THAT CLEAR.”
‘Why hasn’t he been assassinated?’
Routh eventually turns to wondering why Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been killed. He points out that many political figures in American history were murdered, among them John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X.
“What has happened to the Russian people that they are brainwashed into totally blind sheep?” he writes.
“I have asked (on) many occasions of countless people in Ukraine to cross over into Russia and smuggle ourselves to Moscow to handle the job; but all help looses (sic) its courage and will to make something happen.
“How has the entire world failed to chop of (sic) the head of the snake?”
He also speaks favourably of assassination attempts on the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin.
“No one has made any credible attempts,” he says of the Belarussians.
“We must support all of these Belarusian refugees to stand for their freedom and end the life of Putin’s dog in Belarus.
“We cannot allow tyrants that subvert democracy for their own personal gain.”
A few paragraphs after those quotes condemning Belarusian authoritarianism, and without even a hint of irony, Routh speaks of the apparent need for America to become “best friends” with Iran and reconcile with North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un.
“We must sit in the grass with Iran and make them the best friends we have on the planet, and we must sit with Kim Jong-un as long as it takes to make him realise that we are not the enemy of anyone; just simple human beings that struggle to survive,” he says.
“It is the most logical and simplest human act that any fool can see needs to be done.
“We cannot encourage humanitarian actions if we are at odds; we must be partners to reach the same goals and dreams.”
A few paragraphs after that, Routh appears to advocate for an American invasion of Russia, or even a nuclear strike against Putin’s regime.
“When I look back at Hiroshima or Nagasaki or tragic events such as Chernobyl or Fukashima, it all may be horrible but we have been able to manage the clean-up and deal with the disaster,” he writes.
“Why are we afraid to deal with that again? Nuclear weapons put a quick and decisive end to World War II, so why are we afraid now? Why do we even have nuclear weapons if we are not prepared to use them?
“Why have the largest military in the world if you are not prepared to deploy them? We cannot allow countries to promote and facilitate criminal activities that bring down our global economy; we cannot sit with the means to fix the problem and do nothing.
“Russia has the economy of Texas and yet we run from them in fear. If we are unwilling to level Moscow and all of Putin’s residences then we must march with all of our soldiers to Moscow until it is liberated as a true democracy.
“It must be our goal to liberate Russia.”
‘I’ll volunteer to be kidnapped’
Later in the book, Routh returns to “North Korea and the situation that exist (sic) there”.
“I do not expect to be able to talk Kim Jong-un into fighting for Ukraine,” he notes, not inaccurately.
“But I do believe that we must, like with Iran, invite him to the US to vacation and tour and meet with our leaders and population and for him to see that we are just simple-minded human beings that wish him no harm.
“Even a fool such as Trump has the wherewithal to realise that we should talk and build a friendship.
“Kim is intelligent and well-educated at the finest universities; he is smart enough to do what is in his best interest and his countries (sic).”
Routh goes on to say that “resolving our issues” with the North Korean regime should be “the simplest challenge on our globe”.
“I will gladly volunteer to be kidnapped by North Korea and spend years working with them to show them one-by-one that Americans are not the enemy,” he writes.
“We cannot bury our heads in the sand and blame the mistreatment (of North Koreans) and bad conditions solely on North Korea; we must take responsibility also.”
These quotes are followed by a lengthy invitation for Kim to be interviewed “by any of our vast media outlets from the comfort” of his home.
“We would gladly accept any terms towards an interview and allow any editing and omissions needed,” he says.
One does doubt whether the people who actually run those “vast media outlets” would agree.
“In all of Trump’s misguided ignorance, at least he tried,” Routh says, presumably referring to Mr Trump’s diplomatic summits with Kim when he was president.
Routh is also remarkably credulous towards China’s government, led by Xi Jinping, whose practices are no less authoritarian than those of Putin’s regime in Russia.
“I believe in my mind that China is an extremely smart country of extremely smart individuals,” he says.
“And I believe that they, each and every one, know that harming any human is not good and that starting a war that will kill people on both sides is inhumane and silly.
“I am certain that China is brilliant enough to see that nothing is every (sic) worth fighting a war over.”
He goes on to suggest that Taiwan’s negligible scale, as a piece of land, could be offset by mollifying China with something else.
“Perhaps we can give China part of Montana if Alaska is not acceptable; I would be agreeable to that,” says Routh.
“It is simply a matter of good faith and showing trust.
“Why can we not get to a place where borders do not even matter anymore; where it is just a stupid and imaginary line that means nothing? That is the world that I wish to live in.”
‘A world with no men’
As you might expect from a book that is, essentially, one very long stream of consciousness, Routh often distracts himself by embarking on strange tangents. One such diversion sees him imagine a world without men.
“How peaceful would our world be if we could have evolved to reproduce without the male gender and all of its selfish, greedy, arrogant, self-serving macho bulls***?” he asks.
“Oh, what a quiet and peaceful place this world would be. Perhaps we can extract all the testosterone from all future generations and make the male population more kind and caring and eliminate all conflict-mongering pricks.
“Sorry to all the girls looking for these rough gun-slinging cowboys; those redneck barbaric crude days need to be done with and the whole population of the world needs to be educated that such behaviour is not to be tolerated.”
Twitter: @SamClench
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