Contrary to online claims, Trump suspect is registered independent voter

Social media users are variously claiming the man accused of planning to assassinate Donald Trump in Florida is registered as a Republican or a Democratic voter, but public records indicate he is currently neither.

Numerous posts tying the alleged plot to political parties ricocheted across platforms after Ryan Wesley Routh was foiled Sunday when a Secret Service agent spotted his rifle protruding from bushes while the former US president was playing golf nearby.

Many claims centered on Routh, 58, saying in one 2020 post that Trump was his "choice" in 2016 but had disappointed him as president, adding: "I will be glad when you gone (sic)."

However, Patrick Gannon, public information director for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, told AFP that Routh requested an absentee ballot in 2016, but did not actually vote.

Data from North Carolina shows Routh -- a self-employed builder now based in Hawaii with a decades-long arrest record -- is actively registered as an unaffiliated, or independent, voter in the swing state. He most recently cast an in-person ballot during the 2024 Democratic primary.

Routh was removed from the rolls in 2003 following a felony conviction, re-registered in 2005 as an unaffiliated voter, but was removed again in 2010 after another felony conviction, Gannon said.

In 2012, Routh submitted his current registration as unaffiliated.

In a book he self-published in 2023 about the war in Ukraine, Routh maintained he was politically independent.

"I get so tired of people asking me if I am a Democrat or Republican as I refuse to be put in a category and I must always answer independent," he wrote.

Scattered social media posts on Routh’s since-suspended X account show his political opinions shifting over time, with support shown for both Trump and President Joe Biden, as well as Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman turned Trump adviser.

In several posts earlier this year, Routh called for a Republican presidential ticket featuring entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.

He has also posted fervently about his support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion, and in 2022 was interviewed by AFP while demonstrating in Kyiv.

AFP photos from his Hawaii home show a Biden-Harris bumper sticker -- the decal Biden used before dropping out of the race -- on the back of a truck in the driveway.

Electoral information indicates he is a registered voter in Hawaii, as well as North Carolina.

A spokesperson for the City and County of Honolulu said Routh was registered there and that his status is active. The authorities do not collect information on voters' party affiliation, the official added.

Federal Election Commission data shows various small-dollar donations from a Ryan Routh in Hawaii to 2020 Democratic presidential candidates including Gabbard, Andrew Yang, Elizabeth Warren, Tom Steyer and Beto O'Rourke.