A 59-year-old man, Ryan Routh, has been found guilty of attempting to assassinate United States President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in September 2024.
A jury convicted Routh on all counts, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate and multiple firearm offences.
The incident occurred on 15 September, 2024, at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, about 15 minutes from his Mar-a-Lago residence.
According to prosecutors, a Secret Service agent spotted the barrel of a rifle protruding from bushes near the course and opened fire at the suspect who was later identified as Routh, who fled but was arrested nearby.
Routh, a North Carolina native who had been living in Hawaii before the attack, pleaded not guilty and chose to represent himself when the trial opened on 8 September at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Throughout the proceedings, Routh made a series of bizarre statements and requests, including challenging Trump to a game of golf, asking for access to a putting green, and delivering an opening statement that veered into human evolution, kindness, and references to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin.
The judge however cut him short as investigators testified that Routh hid in bushes behind a perimeter fence at the Trump International Golf Club during the attempt.
Although he did not have a clear line of sight to Trump, FBI agents recovered a semiautomatic rifle with a scope and an extended magazine at the scene.
The court also held that Routh had compiled a list of Trump’s expected appearances and left a note for a friend stating, “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.”
The 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 shooter was killed on the spot.
