Would-be Trump assassin ‘obsessed’ with Ukraine – media

The latest assassination attempt on Donald Trump saw 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh hide in the bushes on Trump’s Florida golf course, armed with a rifle, a Go-Pro camera and a backpack full of ‘ceramic tiles,’ thought to be body armor. However, Routh’s past has now come under the spotlight. Interesting fact: he spent an awful long time in Ukraine.

Routh had a string of now-deleted social media accounts and high-profile media interviews, boasting of his involvement in Ukraine, especially in helping recruit foreign mercenaries. In 2022 he told the New York Times about his efforts to recruit Afghan soldiers into the conflict. He also spoke to Newsweek Romania about recruiting for the International Legion Defense of Ukraine. Photos and videos have emerged of him recruiting both in the US and in Ukraine, including appearing in a promotional video for the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion. As Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green put it, it’s clear he is ‘obsessed with the Ukraine war.’

When not busy recruiting, Routh was extremely active on social media, often making unhinged posts denouncing Russia and, of course, Trump. In one message on X, to Elon Musk, he said ‘I would like to buy a rocket from you’ to fire at Russian President Vladimir Putin. In another, to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, he repea