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FBI investigates second Trump assassination attempt
Former President Donald Trump was the target of a second "apparent assassination attempt" while golfing at his Florida course on Sunday, the FBI reported.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Former President Donald Trump was the target of an "apparent assassination attempt" while golfing at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, the FBI said.
Officials said Trump was playing golf when a man allegedly pushed the muzzle of an AK-47 through a chain-linked fence.
An FBI agent noticed the barrel of a gun in the fence line before shooting at the suspect.
That agent engaged with the suspect, who ran off. Authorities later stopped the suspect's vehicle on Interstate 95 in nearby Martin County, and he was taken into custody.
Trump was not injured during the incident, and was safely escorted away from the area, officials and the campaign reported. This was the second attempt on the former president’s life, after he was shot in the ear during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July.
FOX News Digital identified the would-be assassin as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh. Here's what we know about the alleged suspect.
Ryan Routh's social media posts
Fox News Digital poured through the suspect’s alleged social media accounts Sunday afternoon, and found he prolifically posted about Trump, the war in Ukraine, the 2020 election and other world events.
"I feel lucky to have been born in America, with freedom and opportunity and hope that I do not waste such a valuable thing; to do more and take less," Routh’s apparent X account biography declares.
TOPSHOT - This screengrab taken from AFPTV on September 16, 2024 shows Ryan Wesley Routh speaking during an interview at a rally to urge foreign leaders and international organisations to help provide humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civi …
The account also weighed in on Trump’s assassination attempt in July, calling on Vice President Kamala Harris to visit with those injured at the Pennsylvania Trump rally, because "Trump will never do anything for them."
"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," he said in a reply message to Harris’ account on July 17.
"You should visit the victims in the hospital of the trump rally victims and attend the funeral of the fireman that died; Trump certainly never would. SHOW THE WORLD WHAT REAL LEADERS DO," he wrote in another X reply to President Biden.
In another X post published on April 22, Routh appeared to quote a commonly used phrase by the Harris campaign, declaring: "DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose."
"Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA ...make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose. We cannot afford to fail. The world is counting on us to show the way," the account posted ahead of Biden dropping out of the race in July and Harris ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket.
The X account appearing to belong to Routh also said that Trump was his "choice" in 2016, before completely backtracking during the 2020 election.
"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 retar---; I will be glad when you gone," he posted on June 11, 2020.
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Ryan Routh: Who is the alleged would-be Trump assassin?
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested Sunday after allegedly pushing the muzzle of an AK-47 through the chainlink fence outside of where former President Donald Trump was golfing in south Florida. Trump was not injured during the incident, and was safely escorted away from the area, officials and the campaign reported Sunday.
The X account appearing to belong to Routh also repeatedly issued messages related to the war in Ukraine, posting to X that he was ready to fly to Ukraine to fight Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I am flying to Ukraine to fight. We need to launch a media campaign to encourage every human around the globe to meet in Ukraine and join in the fight. We need hundreds of thousands of civilians to make the cost of war high for putin and a flood of fighters," he posted on Feb. 17, 2022.
Following repeated messages declaring his intention to fight on behalf of Ukraine, he posted in April that he was in Kyiv.
"I am here in kyiv and want to use Independence Park to create a tent city of all the foreigners here in support to get thousands more foreign civilians to come and support Ukraine," the account posted.
The New York Times published an article, "Stolen Valor: The U.S. Volunteers in Ukraine Who Lie, Waste and Bicker," last year that also quoted a man named Ryan Routh, describing him as a former construction worker from North Carolina who traveled to Ukraine.
Routh, the outlet reported, was seeking Afghan soldier recruits who fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine. "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," the outlet reported.
"We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country," he told the New York Times in an interview last year.
Trump assassination attempt suspect's criminal history
A background check reviewed by Fox News Digital found that Routh has had repeated run-ins with law enforcement spanning decades in North Carolina.
A majority of the arrests included ones for simple possession, driving without a license, driving with an expired registration, driving without insurance.
In 2002, the Greensboro News & Record reported Ryan Routh was arrested after barricading himself in United Roofing’s office in a three-hour standoff.
Routh had been pulled over by police during a traffic stop, but put his hand on a gun during the stop, sparking him to drive to United Roofing and barricade himself in the building, the outlet reported at the time. He was arrested without incident after the stand-off.
He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a weapon of mass destruction, resisting, delaying and obstructing a law enforcement officer and driving while license revoked. State records show he was sentenced to probation in the case.
Suspect resides in Hawaii
Background records show Ryan Routh is divorced, and moved to Hawaii from North Carolina around 2017.
A LinkedIn profile appearing to belong to Routh details that he is now the owner and operator of a construction company called "Camp Box Honolulu," which is described on the account as a company that builds "simple economical structures to help address the highest homelessness rate in the United States due to unparalleled gentrification."
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"Having passed along any meager remnants of myself in North Carolina and relocated to Oahu, I currently build very simple housing structures for the less fortunate and pursue a wide range of other creative projects towards developing unique products and devices as well as community improvement projects. I am constantly looking for collaborative opportunities which yield the most public impact for the improvement of our society. I would tremendously enjoy the invitation to join any monumental worthy cause to bring about real change in our world. I am certainly free to relocate to any remote location on the planet that might render the most positive impact, or right around the corner creating something unique and magical," the LinkedIn page stated.
His previous company, United Roofing, earned one star reviews on Yelp, including a review in 2016 that said: "As a military member trying to buy a home before returning from a deployment the proprietor, Ryan Routh, insulted me for trying to buy a house site unseen as many military members do returning from over seas."
FOX News Digital contributed to this report.