This X screen shot allegedly shows Ryan Routh, who is accused of attempting to shoot former President Donald Trump on Sept. 15. (@stillgray / X Screen Shot)
By C. Douglas Golden September 16, 2024 at 5:59am
So, it didn’t take long after a second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in just two months for the conspiracy theories to start hitting social media.
According to the New York Post, 58-year-old Ryan Routh, a Hawaii native, attempted to line up for a shot at the GOP presidential nominee Sunday afternoon at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The paper reported that the suspect “was able to get between 300 to 500 yards of Trump at a chain link fence on the edge of the course where he had an AK-47 and a GoPro camera set up to apparently film the planned shooting.”
The report adds: “Secret Service agent spotted and opened fire on Routh as he put his gun through the fence. The suspect fled the scene and was arrested on I-95 a short time later.”
This is Ryan Routh. He seems very proud of what he just tried to do. Beaming with patriotism, even. pic.twitter.com/Bt2dopQiEq
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 16, 2024
It didn’t take long for conspiracy theories like these from liberal social media accounts — claiming that Routh was a Republican and implying this was all some kind of “false flag” operation — to begin popping up:
This is Ryan Routh, the man who allegedly tried to assassinate Trump today.
He voted for Trump in 2016.
He apparently supported a Haley/Vivek ticket in 2024.
So, when MAGA world says “they keep trying to assassinate Trump,” what they apparently mean is “Republicans keep trying… pic.twitter.com/yo0lhqT2aM
— Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 (@JoshEakle) September 15, 2024
Is the left’s rhetoric inspiring assassination attempts against Donald Trump?
So this aged well. Ryan Wesley Routh, the would be Trump assassin is Republican, a gun nutter, pushes Covid conspiracies and despite having voted for Trump was a Haley never Trumper. https://t.co/7utn94fUYF pic.twitter.com/hd2gw9ljVB
— Texas Paul Schroder 🇺🇸🦅 (@Paultx890) September 15, 2024
This Republican on Republican violence has to stop!
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) September 15, 2024
Now, we’ll go over what we know about Routh in a second and debunk those implications fairly easily. But don’t just believe the facts about this guy. Believe his son, who told the U.K. Daily Mail that his dad hates Donald Trump just like “every reasonable person does.”
Oran Routh, 35, apparently hadn’t heard about it when the Daily Mail contacted him.
“This was the first I heard about it,” he said, before asking, “Was my father shot or injured?”
As for the alleged target of his father’s ire and/or attempted gunfire: “I don’t like Trump either,” he added. But he insisted his father isn’t the violent type.
“He’s my dad and all he’s had is couple traffic tickets, as far as I know,” the younger Routh said. “That’s crazy. I know my dad and love my dad, but that’s nothing like him.”
“He’s not a violent person,” he added. “He’s a hard worker and a great dad. He’s a great dude, a nice guy and has worked his whole f***ing life.”
However, he did add that the two “had a falling out” and had “grown apart,” seeming unaware of what his father had done after moving back to Hawaii following a stint in Ukraine “to help volunteer and provide aid to those affected” by the Russian invasion, the Daily Mail reported.
BREAKING: Ryan Wesley Routh’s son says his father hates Donald Trump like “all reasonable people.”
Oran Routh tells the Daily Mail his father is not a violent person and didn’t believe he owned a firearm.
“This was the first I heard about it,” he told the Daily Mail.
Oran said… pic.twitter.com/vIoQz2xkcZ
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 16, 2024
Now, it’s unclear how much Oran Routh really knows about his dad — although saying that he hates Trump like “every reasonable person does” after apparently being informed his father tried to take Trump’s life doesn’t exactly speak to his objectivity, at the very least — but, just like social media accounts that tried to paint this as Republican-on-Republican violence, this isn’t the full story.
First, his criminal record, which is a bit more complicated than a “couple traffic tickets.”
“Records show Routh’s issues with the law go back to the 1990s and include lesser charges of writing bad checks,” CBS News reported.
“But in 2002 he was charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction, a felony, according to North Carolina Department of Corrections records. In another incident, he was charged with misdemeanors, including a hit-and-run offense, resisting arrest, and a concealed weapons violation, the records show.”
Even as it regards those “traffic tickets,” underplaying hit-and-run incidents with that kind of language is a bit bizarre.
Also, as for the evidence that Routh was a former Trump supporter is based on his own words on X, formerly Twitter, which isn’t exactly a reliable barometer.
“@realDonaldTrump While you were my choice in 2106 [sic], I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving,” he said in a post in June of 2020. “I will be glad when you gone.”
Furthermore, the Post reported that “Routh has a history of supporting progressive causes online and has made 19 donations to Democratic candidates since 2019.”
And, what’s more, he used the Democrats’ polite version of “Trump is literally a dictator” by echoing the phrase “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose” in an April 22 post.
“We cannot afford to fail,” Routh wrote. “The world is counting on us to show the way.”
Where, pray tell, have we heard that before?
Democracy and freedom are on the ballot this November.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 22, 2024
Oh. It’s almost like insinuating that your opponent is literally coming for democracy is an invitation for the unstable to literally come after him.
Odd, then, that nobody’s going to examine that rhetoric — again — after another assassination attempt gets memory-holed. It’s almost like they don’t care, precisely because they don’t.
Those who feel the need to even address it will either hide behind conspiracy theories or “whataboutism” involving Trump’s rhetoric being responsible for it, and then they’ll move along. If one of these unstable, tightly wound balls of political hatred finally succeeds at what they intend to do — and, God willing, they won’t — blood will be on the hands of everyone who enabled it through their abhorrent reaction.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture
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