An apparently botched assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course was fueling an intensive investigation Monday into how an armed threat could once again reach within a few hundreds yards of Trump, two months after he was nearly killed at an event in Pennsylvania.
Suspect Ryan Routh, 58, appeared in federal court Monday and was being held on charges of possession of a firearm while a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Trump was at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach around 2 p.m. Sunday when Secret Service agents walking the course ahead of him spotted a gun barrel in bushes. When they opened fire, the suspect fled in a black Nissan SUV, leaving behind a loaded, SKS-style assault rifle, a backpack, two bags, a digital camera and some food, according to the criminal complaint.
Routh was detained a short time later, and a witness who saw the suspect fleeing the golf course identified Routh, the complaint says. The license plates on the SUV were from a Ford truck previously reported stolen, the complaint said.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Routh had been about 300-500 yards from Trump and that Routh’s rifle and scope put him within range. Trump thanked the Secret Service and local authorities for their efforts. But he said President Joe Biden and of Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris motivated the incident.
“He (Routh) believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at.”
It was the second assassination attempt he has survived − In July, Trump’s ear was grazed when a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
