What we know about Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in the apparent second Trump assassination attempt

CNN —

Ryan Wesley Routh put his enmity toward Donald Trump – the man he once supported but then dismissed as an “idiot,” a “buffoon” and a “fool” – at the center of a rambling and fanciful worldview that also fixated on Ukraine, Taiwan, North Korea, and what he called the “end of humanity.”

The 58-year-old, who was detained Sunday in connection with an apparent assassination attempt on the former president, protested in Kyiv after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and committed his ideas to paper in a self-published 291-page book.

Authorities suspect Routh, who owns a small construction company in Hawaii, was planning to attack the former President as he played a round of golf on Sunday, with US Secret Service agents firing at a man with a rifle in the bushes near the golf club. He was later apprehended after being stopped on a nearby highway.

Routh appeared in federal court Monday and was charged with two counts, possession of a firearm while a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Kristy Militello, the federal public defender assigned to Routh’s case, declined to comment after the hearing.

For years, he criticized not only Trump but himself, describing Trump as “my choice” in the 2016 presidential election but later writing that he is “man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake.”

Here’s what we know about Routh so far.

Who is Ryan Wesley Routh?

Routh’s thoughts and fixations on global politics appeared idealistic to some who came across him, but his writings show how he became increasingly militant about the geopolitical forces he railed against.

His business pursuits, by contrast, appear relatively unremarkable. On Routh’s LinkedIn