J ust two months after an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in July during a rally in Pennsylvania, another apparent attempt on the Republican presidential nominee’s life was foiled by authorities on Sunday at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump was unharmed, and a suspect who fled the scene was arrested Sunday and charged Monday with two gun-related crimes. Federal authorities have identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh , a 58-year-old living in Hawaii who once supported Trump and was particularly passionate about defending Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Politicians across the spectrum have condemned the attack, and law enforcement officials are investigating.
Here’s what to know.
Hiding in the bushes: what happened
While Trump was golfing on Sunday around 1:30 p.m.—an activity that was not on his public schedule—a Secret Service agent working on Trump’s protective detail was positioned one hole ahead of the former President. The agent noticed a man holding a rifle an estimated 400 yards away poking out of a tree line near the golf course, officials said. (For reference, the shooter in July was approx. 400 feet—about one-third of the distance—away from Trump.)
Routh did not fire any shots during the incident and did not have a line of sight on Trump, U.S. Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said at a press conference Monday afternoon. (The former director of the agency resigned after the fallout following the attempted assassination of Trump in July, when the President was injured and a rally-goer was killed.)
Read More: Where the Secret Service Goes From Here
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said on Sunday that as Secret Service personnel opened fire at the gunman hiding in the bushes, the gunman dropped his weapon and other items—a digital camera, a backpack, what appear to be ceramic tiles, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope, and a black plastic bag containing food—and fled in a vehicle. The serial number on the rifle was obliterated.
Cell phone location data obtained by the FBI indicates that Routh “was located in the vicinity of the area of the tree line” at Trump’s golf course just before 2:00 a.m. Sunday until about 1:30 p.m, according to the criminal complaint released on Monday and reiterated by Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office at a later press conference.
A witness reported seeing the suspect flee from the bushes and photographed the vehicle he jumped into—a black Nissan SUV. (According to the criminal complaint, officers found that the vehicle’s license plate was registered to a white Ford truck that had been reported stolen.) Authorities were able to pull the vehicle over on a highway, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. “We did not give him an opportunity to put up a fight, we had him contained, forced off the road, taken out at gunpoint,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder later told the media of the arrest, adding that the suspect was unarmed, “relatively calm,” and “not displaying a lot of emotions” when he was stopped. The earlier witness was brought in to confirm the suspect was the same person seen fleeing. Routh was identified to the media by anonymous law enforcement sources as the arrested suspect on Sunday and publicly named when he was charged on Monday.
Investigations underway
The FBI is investigating the incident as “an apparent assassination attempt,” Veltri said in the press conference Monday afternoon. CNN reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed law enforcement source, that the FBI’s investigation into Routh was going “global” because of his claims about foreign travel and usage of online platforms headquartered outside of the U.S. Authorities have not identified any potential co-conspirators, the source added.
Veltri said the FBI is executing search warrants for Routh’s cellular devices, a video recording device, a vehicle, and other electronic devices located at previous known addresses. He said the FBI is interviewing Routh’s family members, friends, and former colleagues, and is currently processing evidence.
Veltri also said Routh had “an active online presence” and the FBI is going through his social media accounts and online searches.
Read More: What to Know About the Suspect Charged in Second Apparent Trump Assassination Attempt
In addition to the FBI’s investigation, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X that the state would conduct a separate investigation into the incident. “The people deserve the truth about the would be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP nominee,” said DeSantis, Trump’s former primary rival who has since endorsed him.
Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Jason Crow (D-Colo.) of the congressional task force on the earlier assassination attempt on Trump posted a joint statement saying that they have “requested a briefing with the U.S. Secret Service about what happened and how security responded.” They said they are grateful Trump was unharmed “but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms” and “will share updates as we learn more.”
In a statement , Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) urged Biden to “issue President Trump the same security levels afforded to a sitting president to ensure his safety.” Bradshaw, the Palm Beach County sheriff, had said during the Sunday press briefing that a reason the entire perimeter of the golf course had not been secured was because Trump had not been accorded the same level of protection as a sitting President and that “security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”
Rowe, from the Secret Service, acknowledged on Monday that the agency was struggling with a lack of resources for the ongoing political campaigns. “We are redlining them,” Rowe said of the overworked Secret Service agents, as he “ordered a paradigm shift” to cope with the evolving threats.
Routh once supported Trump
The suspected gunman now in police custody is a Hawaii-based 58-year-old who said on social media that he voted for Trump in 2016. Past interviews and social media posts paint him as a Trump supporter-turned-critic who was fixated on global politics and particularly upset with Trump’s decision to withdraw from the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal .
Routh wrote in a June 2020 post on his X (formerly Twitter) account, which has since been suspended: “@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. I will be glad when you gone.”
Routh had previously thought about the idea of a Trump assassination in what appears to be a self-published e-book in 2023 . In a section about Iran, Routh apologized to the Middle East nation for having previously voted for Trump, whom Routh described as a “retarded child” and said “ended up being brainless” for dismantling the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal . “I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake,” Routh wrote. “You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment.”
“No one here in the U.S. seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work,” he added, “or even unnatural selection.”
According to public voter records at the North Carolina State Board of Elections, Routh was registered as an unaffiliated voter without a party in Guilford County in 2012. In March 2024, he voted in the state’s Democratic primary. Federal Election Commission filings show that Routh donated more than $140 to Act Blue, the Democratic fundraising platform, between September 2019 and March 2020.
However, Routh’s politics do not appear consistently aligned with one party or the other. In an X post on Jan. 8, 2024, Routh called on then-Republican primary candidate Nikki Haley to team up with other Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to “create a winning ticket now that we all can get behind.” Other previous posts showed support for former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat turned Trump supporter.
When Trump was shot during a previous assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania in July, Routh posted on X tagging President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris urging them to visit the rally-goer victims : “You and Biden should visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered fireman. Trump will never do anything for them.”
Federal agents are yet to lay out a motive. Routh has a history of criminal convictions, some of which would have barred him from owning a gun.
‘I will NEVER SURRENDER!’: Trump’s response
In an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL! Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”
After the incident, Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago , his Palm Beach resort about 4.5 miles away from the golf course, the Associated Press reported.
Despite another apparent attempt on his life, Trump was in “good spirits” on Sunday evening, Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) both posted on social media, saying that they’d each spoken with the former President.
CBS reported, citing Trump’s friends, family, and advisors, that he was joking that he wished he could have finished his round of golf.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said he spoke with Trump’s golf partner on Sunday, real estate investor Steve Witkoff, who recalled that Trump went “out of his way” to express gratitude to the Secret Service agents at the scene.
Meanwhile, a Trump campaign internal email to staffers warned them to “remain vigilant,” the AP reported. “This is not a matter that we take lightly. Your safety is always our top priority,” said the email. “As we enter the last 50 days of President Trump’s campaign, we must remember that we will only be able [to] save America from those who seek to destroy it by working together as one team.”
In a Truth Social post later Sunday night, Trump said: “I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes - It was certainly an interesting day! Most importantly, I want to thank the U.S. Secret Service, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his Office of brave and dedicated Patriots, and, all of Law Enforcement, for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me, as the 45th President of the United States, and the Republican Nominee in the upcoming Presidential Election, SAFE. THE JOB DONE WAS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING. I AM VERY PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”
“No leader in American history has endured more attacks and remained so strong and resilient,” House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) posted on X . “He is unstoppable.”
Hannity, who described Sunday’s incident as “a security failure again,” said on-air that he spoke to Trump’s son Eric, who had told him: “How many more lives does my father have here? He can only dodge so many bullets.”
In a social media post on Monday, Trump blamed the rhetoric of his Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris for the incident, saying that it “has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.”
“Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” he said, adding a call for tighter immigration control: “OUR BORDERS MUST BE CLOSED, AND THE TERRORISTS, CRIMINALS, AND MENTALLY INSANE, IMMEDIATELY REMOVED FROM AMERICAN CITIES AND TOWNS, DEPORTED BACK TO THEIR COUNTIES OF ORIGIN.” (Routh was born and raised in North Carolina, and Trump has often seemed to confuse patients of mental asylums, or psychiatric hospitals , with asylum-seekers, or refugees .)
‘Violence has no place’: Democrats, world leaders, and celebrities react
President Joe Biden commended the U.S. Secret Service and law enforcement in a White House statement , saying he was relieved that Trump is safe and reiterated that “there is no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country.” He added: “I have directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety.”
On Monday morning, Biden told reporters that the Secret Service “needs more help” and that “Congress should respond to their needs if they in fact need more service people.”
"They're deciding whether they need more personnel or not,” he added.
A White House spokesperson also shared on Monday that Biden called Trump and “conveyed his relief that he is safe,” and that “the two shared a cordial conversation.”
Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minn. Gov. Tim Walz each posted on X that they were “glad” Trump is safe and that “violence has no place” in the U.S. “It’s not who we are as a nation,” Walz said.
“Political violence has no place in a civilized society,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement. “The alleged perpetrator,” he added, “should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), a member of the congressional task force on the July assassination attempt on Trump, told CNN that he was “very concerned” about the Secret Service’s ability to keep the former President safe in outdoor environments” and that Americans should also be concerned about how “a second individual, clearly disturbed, was able to get this close to the former President with a weapon.” He added: “This is getting embarrassing for the agency, and people in Congress are bewildered why we’re in this situation now for a second time.”
Outside the U.S., Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that while he was “relieved” that the assassination attempt on Trump had failed, “we should not rely on luck.” He added: “We send our best wishes to Donald and Melania along with our hopes that all measures will be taken to ensure that such deadly attacks on a candidate for the US presidency will be foiled in advance.”
Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum and outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador both issued statements on social media condemning the attack against Trump. “Peace must always guide democratic processes,” said Sheinbaum.
In a since-deleted post on X, Elon Musk—who endorsed Trump shortly after the former President survived the earlier attempt on his life in July— wrote : “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” (A man was arrested in Florida in July for threatening to kill Biden, and a man was arrested in Virginia in August for threatening to kill Harris.) The tech billionaire continued to post and reply to posts on X expressing support for Trump and blaming Democrats’ rhetoric for the violence targeting him.
Comedian Jon Stewart , while backstage at the Emmy Awards on Sunday night, said that one thing he and his Daily Show colleagues try to do is “not feel as though we are under the spotlight of making some profound statement about the moment. I don’t know that we can.” Though he did offer his wry advice: “I think the one rule maybe we could all benefit from in terms of engagement is ‘no shooting.’ No matter how mad you are, no matter who you don’t like, who you hate… I believe instituting a ‘no shooting’ policy would be the way to take things down a notch.”
—Chad de Guzman contributed reporting.
Write to Nik Popli at nik.popli@time.com .
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