FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Ryan Routh, the 59-year-old man found hiding in the bushes along a Florida golf course with a semi-automatic rifle during an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump less than two months before the 2024 election, was sentenced to life in prison in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon imposed the punishment after a jury in September convicted Routh on five counts, including attempted assassination. “It’s clear to me that you engaged in a premeditated, calculated plot to take a human life,” Cannon said.
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Prosecutor John Shipley told the court Routh’s crimes were aimed at “upending American democracy” and urged a sentence that underscored that political violence is intolerable. Prosecutors argued in filings that a life term was justified because Routh planned the attack for months, was willing to kill anyone who stood in his way and has shown no remorse.
Routh denied trying to kill Trump. He used his sentencing remarks to deliver a rambling statement that touched on foreign wars and his desire to be exchanged for political prisoners abroad. “I have given every drop of who I am every day for the betterment of my community and this nation,” he said, also claiming jurors had been misled because he was unable to mount a proper defense.
The case stemmed from a Sept. 15, 2024, incident at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Secret Service agents spotted Routh concealed in dense shrubbery a few hundred yards from where Trump was golfing. Routh fled, leaving behind an assault-style rifle, and was later arrested. He was also convicted of three illegal firearm possession charges and one count of impeding a federal officer during his arrest.
Evidence at trial showed Routh arrived in South Florida about a month earlier, stayed at a truck stop and tracked Trump’s movements and schedule. Prosecutors said he carried six cellphones, used fake names to mask his identity and lay in wait for nearly 10 hours on the day of the incident. Investigators recovered the rifle, two bags containing metal plates resembling body armor and a video camera aimed at the course.
Routh pleaded not guilty but fired his lawyers and represented himself despite having no formal legal training. His opening statement veered into the origins of the human species and the settlement of the American West before Cannon cut him off and warned against making a mockery of the proceedings. His defense centered on portraying himself as nonviolent, while law enforcement witnesses detailed the government’s case.
After jurors returned their verdict, Routh appeared to try to stab himself with a pen and was restrained by U.S. marshals. His daughter shouted from the gallery that he had not hurt anyone and vowed to get him out of prison.
The assassination attempt unfolded two months after a gunman’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Both episodes occurred as Trump, a Republican, campaigned to reclaim the White House following his 2020 defeat by Democrat Joe Biden. Trump ultimately returned to the presidency after the November 2024 vote, frequently citing the attempts on his life to argue the Justice Department under Biden could not be trusted with related investigations.
In a post on his Truth Social platform after Routh’s conviction, Trump wrote: “This was an evil man with an evil intention, and they caught him.”
Routh, who had most recently lived in Hawaii after previously residing in North Carolina, said in court filings he was willing to undergo psychological treatment for a personality disorder while in prison. Shipley, the prosecutor, told jurors at trial that Routh’s plot was “carefully crafted and deadly serious,” adding that without the Secret Service’s intervention, “Donald Trump would not be alive.”
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
