5 things to know about the apparent assassination attempt on Trump at one of his golf courses

Former President Donald Trump is safe following what the FBI says “appears to be an attempted assassination” while playing golf two months after another attempt on his life at a rally in Pennsylvania. Local authorities said the U. S. Secret Service agents protecting Trump fired at a man pointing an AK-style rifle with a scope as Trump was playing on one of his Florida golf courses in West Palm Beach. Here are five things to know about what happened Sunday to the Republican presidential nominee.

Law enforcement officials said the man who pointed the rifle and was arrested is Ryan Wesley Routh. The officials identified the suspect to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. Records show Routh, 58, lived in North Carolina for most of his life before moving in 2018 to Kaaawa, Hawaii, where he and his son operated a company building sheds, according to an archived version of the webpage for the business. Routh 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. “Fight and die to stop aggression,” he posted on X in February 2023 about Ukraine.

“Everyone should be outraged and helping. ” In a video circulating online Routh said, “This is about good versus evil. ” He also wrote separately on X, “I am going to fight and die for Ukraine” and even traveled there. Video shot by the AP showed Routh at a small demonstration in Kyiv’s Independence Square in April 2022, two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of the country. A placard he was holding said: “We cannot tolerate corruption and evil for another 50+ years.

End Russia for our kids. ” Routh wore a blue vest with the U. S. , flag on the back. That same day, Routh also visited a makeshift memorial to “Foreigners killed by Putin.

” 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’s 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 to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates. Records show that while living in Greensboro, North Carolina, Routh had multi.