A United States federal jury has found 59-year-old Ryan Routh guilty of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump during an incident on a Florida golf course in September 2024.
Routh was convicted on all charges, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate and multiple firearm offences.
The attack occurred on 15 September 2024 at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, located about 15 minutes from his Mar-a-Lago residence. Prosecutors said a Secret Service agent noticed the barrel of a rifle sticking out from bushes near the course and opened fire. Routh, who was later identified as the suspect, fled the scene but was arrested nearby.
Routh, a native of North Carolina who had been living in Hawaii before the attack, pleaded not guilty and chose to represent himself when the trial began on 8 September at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Throughout the proceedings, he made a series of bizarre statements and requests — including challenging Trump to a golf game, asking for access to a putting green, and delivering an opening statement that drifted into discussions about human evolution, kindness, Adolf Hitler, and Vladimir Putin.
The presiding judge eventually cut him short as investigators testified that Routh had hidden in bushes behind a perimeter fence at the Trump International Golf Club during the attempted attack.
Although Routh did not have a clear line of sight to Trump at the time, FBI agents recovered a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a scope and an extended magazine at the scene.
The court also found that Routh had compiled a list of Trump’s expected public appearances and left a note for a friend stating: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.”
This case marked the second attempt on Trump’s life in 2024. Just two months earlier, in July, a gunman opened fire at one of his campaign rallies in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one person and injuring several others, including Trump. The assailant in that incident was shot dead on the spot.
