Trump was in Palm Beach, Florida at his golf club Sunday morning when the Secret Service discovered a man with an assault rifle hiding in the bushes. He had a scope and was within 300-500 yards of the former president.
“I was playing golf with some of my friends Sunday morning,” Trump said in a post he made on X. “It was very peaceful, very beautiful weather. And all of the sudden we heard shots being fired in the air.”
The man discovered in the bushes was would-be assassinator Ryan Wesley Routh. After the Secret Service realized his presence, they opened fire on him. Routh dropped his weapon and fled the scene in an SUV. He was later stopped by law enforcement in a nearby county.
Routh was detained by police and tried in federal courts on Monday, Sept. 16 on two federal gun related crimes. Officials say additional charges may be possible.
Routh voted for Trump in the 2016 election, however he later wrote a book calling Trump an “idiot” and “buffoon” and claims he regrets voting for him. Routh was an avid supporter of Ukraine and didn’t trust Trump to handle the situation.
“We need everyone from around the globe to stop what they are doing,” Routh said in an old interview. “Come here now and support the Ukrainians to end this war.”
Nurse Chelsea Walsh from Kansas City worked in Kyiv, Ukraine to help with the war in Ukraine. She worked there during the time when Routh was there recruiting people to fight in a civilian army against Russia. She recalls his violent and erratic behavior such as specific threats against Putin and was hateful towards even his own children.
“Ryan Routh is a ticking time bomb.” Walsh recalls telling US Customs and Border Control back in 2022.
There have been mixed reports on whether or not Routh was within range of firing on Trump, however the Secret Service came out on Sept. 6 to clear up the confusion, saying that “the suspect did not have a line of sight on Trump.”
“What we did yesterday proves that the system can work.” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said to reporters the day after the incident. “Because the suspect didn’t even get close to getting a round off and we apprehended him and brought him to justice.”
Trump’s Secret Service has had to deal with two assassination attempts in the past few months. There has been talk about the effectiveness of the secret service and President Joe Biden spoke out about the situation.
“One thing I want to make clear,” Biden said in a press release, “the [Secret] Service needs more help and I think the Congress should respond to their needs, if in fact they need more servicemen.”
The Secret Service, while it may be flawed, is an overall effective unit. The fact that Routh was discovered before he was able to fire upon the former president is a sign of their effectiveness at protection.
“The Secret Service’s protective methodologies work and they are sound,” Secret Service Chief Ronald Rowe said in a press conference, “and we saw that yesterday, but we need to get out of a reactive model and get to a readiness model.”
