Ryan Routh lay in wait outside Trump’s golf course for nearly 12 hours

Ryan Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm with a prior felony conviction and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He did not get any shots off and, unlike the first assassination attempt, the Secret Service fired first. Routh is a 58-year-old Democrat activist who has attempted to recruit mercenaries for the war in Ukraine.

Police arrested Routh shortly after he was alleged to have pointed his rifle through the fence at Trump while he was golfing at Trump International Golf Club. Routh did not get a shot off and this time Secret Service agents fired first and pursuing police apprehended Routh alive and uninjured after he fled the scene. Authorities said Trump did not warrant the same degree of security as a “sitting president.”

Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach Monday, where he smiled, laughed and was hit with two gun charges. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) released a whistleblower report Monday that is damning in its assessment of how amateurish and ineffective the United States Secret Service (USSS) was in protecting Trump from the first assassination attempt in Butler, PA.

Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered muted outrage over the attack with Harris saying in a post on X: “I am glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America.”

“We will work tirelessly to ensure accountability, and we will bring every available resource to bear in this investigation,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.