麻豆影视

Skip to main content

5 things to know about the apparent assassination attempt on Trump

Share
WEST BALM BEACH, Fla. -

Former U.S. president Donald Trump wasn鈥檛 harmed by Sunday鈥檚 apparent assassination attempt as he golfed near his Florida club. But the second attack on his life in barely two months is likely to further unsettle an election cycle already marked by upheaval.

The man suspected in the incident, Ryan Wesley Routh, camped outside the golf courses in West Palm Beach with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours, according to court documents filed Monday. He is accused of lying in wait for the former president before a Secret Service agent opened fire, thwarting the potential attack.

Here are five things to know about what happened and where the investigation stands.

Who is the suspect?

Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite a prior felony conviction for possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional charges are possible.

The suspect lived in North Carolina for most of his life before moving in 2018 to Kaaawa, Hawaii. He and his son operated a company building sheds, according to an archived version of the webpage for the business.

Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach on Monday. He had previously posted frequently posted on social media about the war in Ukraine and had a website where he sought to raise money and recruit volunteers to go to Kyiv to join the fight against the Russian invasion.

鈥淔ight and die to stop aggression,鈥 he posted on X in February 2023 about Ukraine. 鈥淓veryone should be outraged and helping.鈥 In a video circulating online Routh said, 鈥淭his is about good versus evil.鈥

He also wrote separately on X, 鈥淚 am going to fight and die for Ukraine鈥 and even traveled there.

Video shot by the AP showed Routh at a small demonstration in Kyiv鈥檚 Independence Square in April 2022, two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of the country. A placard he was holding said: 鈥淲e cannot tolerate corruption and evil for another 50+ years. End Russia for our kids.鈥 Routh wore a blue vest with the U.S., flag on the back.

That same day, Routh also visited a makeshift memorial to 鈥淔oreigners killed by Putin.鈥

But Routh never served in the Ukrainian army or worked with its military, said Oleksandr Shahuri of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Command.

Routh's politics, meanwhile, don't appear consistently aligned to one party or the other.

In June 2020, he offered a post on X directed at then-President Trump to say he would win reelection if he issued an executive order for the Justice Department to prosecute police misconduct. That year, he also posted in support of the Democratic presidential campaign of then-U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who has since left the party and endorsed Trump.

However, in recent years, his posts suggest he soured on Trump, and he expressed support for President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.

In July, following the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania, Routh urged Biden and Harris to visit those wounded in the shooting at the hospital and to attend the funeral of a former fire chief killed at the rally.

Voter records show he registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently voting in person during the state鈥檚 Democratic Party primary in March 2024. Federal campaign finance records show Routh made 19 small political donations totaling $140 since 2019 using his Hawaii address through a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.

Records show that while living in Greensboro, North Carolina, Routh had multiple run-ins with law enforcement. The top FBI official in the Miami, Jeffrey B. Veltri, said Routh has numerous felony charges for stolen goods between 1997 and 2010. He also was the subject of a closed investigation in 2019 when someone reported he was a felon in possession of a firearm, but Veltri said the tipster would not confirm making the report.

Routh was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records.

How did this happen?

Authorities spotted a firearm poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course around 400 to 500 yards from where Trump was playing. As the former president was moving through the fifth hole's fairway, an agent who was visually sweeping the area of the sixth hole's green saw the subject, armed with what he perceived to be a rifle, and immediately discharged his firearm, said acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. of the U.S. Secret Service.

Rowe said Routh 鈥渄id not have a line of sight to the former president鈥 and did not fire at Secret Service agents before fleeing.

Routh sped away before being captured in a neighboring county. Body camera footage of Routh鈥檚 arrest showed him walking backward with his hands over his head on the side of a road before being handcuffed and led away.

The suspect is believed to have been positioned at the tree line of the golf course from about 1:59 a.m. to 1:31 p.m. Sunday. A digital camera, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food were recovered from the area.

Trump鈥檚 protective detail has been higher than some of his peers because of his high visibility and his campaign to seek the White House again. His security was bolstered days before the July 13 assassination attempt in Pennsylvania because of a threat on Trump鈥檚 life from Iran, U.S. officials said.

What has Trump said since the attempt?

Trump initially posted: 鈥淚 AM SAFE AND WELL!鈥 and subsequently praised the Secret Service for protecting him.

But the former president pivoted Monday to the politics surrounding the incident claiming 鈥 without evidence 鈥 that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris comments that he is a threat to democracy had inspired the latest attempt on his life.

鈥淭heir rhetoric is causing me to be shot at," Trump told Fox News Digital. In a subsequent post on his social media site Monday, Trump wrote that the left 鈥渉as taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.鈥 He said 鈥渋t will only get worse,鈥 then veered into comments about immigration, even though there is no evidence immigrants were involved in the incident.

The former president made those comments despite his own long history of inflammatory campaign rhetoric and advocacy for jailing or prosecuting his political enemies.

What is Vice-President Kamala Harris saying?

Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent in the presidential election, posted on X that she was "glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.鈥

Biden also avoided politics in his reaction. He said Monday that the Secret Service 鈥渘eeds more help鈥 and urging Congress to provide additional resources to help the agency.

鈥淎merica has suffered too many times the tragedy of an assassin鈥檚 bullet,鈥 Biden said at the start of an address to the National HBCU Week Conference in Philadelphia. 鈥淚t solves nothing. It just tears the country apart. We must do everything we can to prevent it and never give it any oxygen.鈥

What's next?

Trump hasn't announced any changes to his schedule and is speaking live on X on Monday night from his Mar-a-Lago resort to launch his sons鈥 crypto platform. Harris met with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at the 1.3 million-member group鈥檚 headquarters in Washington.

Still, a presidential race already rocked by Biden giving up his reelection bid and the first attack on Trump now is being further shaped by a second one. The leaders of a congressional bipartisan task force investigating Trump's Pennsylvania shooting said they have requested a briefing by the Secret Service.

鈥淲e are thankful that the former President was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms,鈥 Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., said in a statement.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

How to win the fight with kids over phone use

The end of the day 鈥 when school, extracurricular activities and homework are (hopefully) finally done 鈥 is the window that many kids have for downtime. It can be a struggle to convince them not to go on their phones.

Tattoos are becoming more common in today's society and, as a result, appear to be more acceptable in the workplace than they used to be.

Local Spotlight

Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.

Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.

An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.

They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.