The alleged would-be assassin who attempted to kill former President Donald Trump on Sunday, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was once photographed with Biden-Harris administration appointee celebrity chef José Andrés in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Routh, who allegedly was staking out the Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach with a scoped AK-47 on Sunday, appears to be obsessed with the Russia-Ukraine war, so much so that he wrote a book about it.
In it, Routh shares a picture of himself alongside Andrés, who Biden appointed as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition in 2022.
“World Central Kitchen and Jose Luis delivering millions of meals daily to Ukraine,” Routh wrote, misidentifying Andrés, according to an image of the book tweeted by leftist journalist Max Blumenthal.
Andrés also founded and ran the humanitarian food relief nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which, as of November 2022, had already sent thousands of volunteer cooks to Ukraine since the war commenced eight months earlier, as Forbes noted.
Jose Andres, founder and chief feeding officer at World Central Kitchen, speaks during the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Andrés notably has a history with Trump as well. In 2015, he pulled out of a deal for a restaurant at what would become the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, over comments Trump made about illegal immigration, NPR noted. Trump sued for $10 million, and Andrés’s Think Food Group countersued for $8 million.
The groups reached a settlement in 2017, according to NPR:
“I am glad that we are able to put this matter behind us and move forward as friends,” Donald Trump Jr. said in the statement. “Since opening in September 2016, Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C. has been an incredible success and our entire team has great respect for the accomplishments of both José and TFG. Without question, this is a ‘win-win’ for both of our companies.”
“I am pleased that we were able to resolve our differences and move forward cooperatively, as friends,” said Andrés in the statement. “I have great respect for the Trump Organization’s commitment to excellence in redeveloping the Old Post Office. … Going forward, we are excited about the prospects of working together with the Trump Organization on a variety of programs to benefit the community.”
