Former President Donald Trump has yet again been involved in a potential threat to his life, the second in almost as many months. This latest incident has occurred just nine weeks after the assassination attempt on the Republican candidate that took place in July 2024 during a rally held in Butler, Pennsylvania.
This second similar incident was a much less public affair, instead taking place while Trump privately played a game of golf instead of addressing a large crowd. It also seems that the Secret Service learned from prior mistakes and reacted more swiftly than in the previous attempt, as Trump was left entirely uninjured on this occasion. Here’s how everything went down.
Where were the shots fired, and were they fired at Trump?
At around 1:30, a Secret Service agent noticed an armed man hiding in the bushes near a chain-link fence surrounding the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Course West Palm Beach, Florida. Agents started firing on the man and he ran to his black Nissan and drove away. Trump was not harmed and it’s not known if the would-be assassin fired off any shots of his own.
A witness nearby saw the man run back to his car and took a picture of the vehicle, which he shared with law enforcement. The man was driving northbound on Interstate 95 in Martin County when he was caught and taken into custody.
Trump was golfing with his friend New York real estate investor Steve Witkoff when the incident went down, and after the shooting he went back to his Mar-a-Lago estate. His campaign immediately sent out a fundraising email that said, “There are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us.”
Who fired the shots, and is he in custody?
Authorities identified the subject as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, from Hawaii. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of Palm Beach County told the media that Trump was about 400 yards, or four football fields, away from the shooter. When authorities went to investigate the perimeter near where the man was hiding, they found a video camera, a semiautomatic rifle with a scope and two backpacks hanging on the fence filled with ceramic tile. Investigators are looking into the firearm’s origin.
Coincidentally, journalist Thomas Gibbons-Neff from the New York Times interviewed Routh for a piece about foreign fighters volunteering for the war in Ukraine. “The piece focused on people who were not qualified to be allowed anywhere near the battlefield in a U.S.-led war and yet were fighting on the front against Russia, with access to weapons and military equipment,” Gibbons-Neff said about the encounter.
Routh is a former construction worker from Greensboro, N.C. and had no military experience when he went to Ukraine to recruit soldiers for the war. In a brief interview, Routh talked about “buying off corrupt officials, forging passports and doing whatever it takes to get his Afghan cadre to Ukraine,” but he didn’t really have any means to do so, Gibbons-Neff said.
Routh was active on social media and claimed he voted for Trump in 2016 but became disillusioned with him, and later said he would “be glad” if Trump was gone.
Has this been deemed a second Trump assassination attempt?
Although it seems that Routh did not fire his weapon, nor was he close enough to Trump to be a real threat at the time, this incident is being officially classified as a second attempt on the politician’s life. The F.B.I.’s description of the event, which is being cited by the press, is that it “appears to be an attempted assassination” of the presidential candidate.
“I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes — It was certainly an interesting day!” Trump shared on Truth Social later that day. He went on to thank “the U.S. Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his Office of brave and dedicated Patriots, and, all of Law Enforcement” for their “incredible job.” Trump concluded: “THE JOB DONE WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING. I AM VERY PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”