FORT PIERCE, Fla.—Ryan Routh is guilty of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at his South Florida golf club last year, along with assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations, a federal jury determined on Sept. 23.
Routh was indicted last year for attempting to assassinate Trump after entering the tree line at the president’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, 2024, and waiting for him for hours in a “hideout” behind a chain-link fence.
Routh was staking out the golf course’s sixth hole with an SKS-style semiautomatic rifle, two bags affixed to the fence with bulletproof plates inside, and several other items authorities found—such as flashlights and Vienna sausages—after he fled onto an adjacent street, prosecutors said.
The defendant represented himself in the trial, and said his defense argument centered on proving his “gentleness and nonviolence.” Two longtime associates appeared on the witness stand on Monday and testified about Routh’s past efforts at community engagement and helping friends and family.
Prosecutors disputed this portrayal by questioning Routh’s witnesses about their lack of contact with him over the past seven years, and by piecing together various items of evidence purporting to show Routh’s premeditated intention to assassinate Trump and other political targets.
Prosecutors also triangulated Routh’s movements and whereabouts leading up to the assassination attempt with data from his various cellphones recovered the day of the incident, attempting to prove he was both “stalking” Trump and planning for months to kill the president, who was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee at the time.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
