Man found guilty of trying to assassinate Trump at his Florida golf course last year

Moments after a federal jury found Ryan Wesley Routh guilty Tuesday of trying to kill Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course last year, the defendant tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen in Fort Pierce federal court.

His daughter, Sara, screamed, “Dad, don’t hurt yourself,” as U.S. deputy marshals tried to restrain Routh while rushing him out of the courtroom.

Soon after, they returned Routh in handcuffs to the courtroom — but no blood was visible on his white shirt, and he did not appear to have harmed himself.

His son, Adam, yelled, “We love you, dad,” as the marshals escorted him out of the courtoom again.

Routh, who put on a meandering defense representing himself at his federal trial on charges of trying to shoot Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach club last September, was found guilty Tuesday of the attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate.

The conviction carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Routh, 59, had a two-week trial in Fort Pierce federal court. After closing arguments, the 12-person jury took about two hours to convict him not only of the main charge but also four others: possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; assaulting a federal officer; being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition; and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Those charges also carry long prison sentences.

“Today’s guilty verdict against would-be Trump assassin Ryan Routh illustrates the Department of Justice’s commitment to punishing those who engage in political violence,” said U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This attempted assassination was not only an attack on our President, but an affront to our very nation itself.”

Routh, a North Carolina native who didn’t testify in his own defense, was perhaps doomed from the moment that prosecutors called the first of a few dozen witnesses: At the outset, a Secret Service agent testified that he came within 5 feet of the defendant as he aimed an assault rifle through a cyclone fence directly at him on a West Palm Beach golf course.

Agent Robert Fercano testified that he was doing a security sweep of the sixth hole at the Trump International Golf Club as the presidential candidate played there on Sept. 15, 2024, when he spotted Routh and the barrel of a rifle protruding through a bush-obscured fence.

Fercano said he was able to see Routh’s face through the foliage and identified him in court as the defendant. Fercano said he fired shots at Routh, causing him to flee and leave his assault rifle, bullet-proof plates and other evidence by the fence.

“The barrel of the rifle was pointed directly at my face,” Fercano testified.

But Routh, while cross-examining the agent, asked if he ever injured him in any way, trying to make the point in his questioning that he didn’t return fire with his SKS semiautomatic rifle. Later in the trial, after prosecutors rested their case and Routh put on a brief defense Monday, he tried to portray himself as a peaceful, gentle person in his questioning of witnesses, including an old friend.

Fires public defender’s attorney

Routh was on trial for trying to assassinate Trump, who at the time was running as a presidential candidate for a second term. He represented himself after firing the federal public defender’s office as his attorney. Trial testimony started on Sept. 11, one day after conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, 31, a Trump ally, was assassinated on a university campus in Utah.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the federal bench by Trump during his first term as president, cautioned jurors about Routh’s representation of himself before they started deliberations on Tuesday.

“The defendant has decided to represent himself in this trial and not to use the services of a lawyer,” Cannon said in her jury instructions. “He has a constitutional right to do that. His decision has no bearing on whether he is guilty or not guilty, and it must not affect our consideration of the case.”

Routh, who rambled incoherently about subjects unrelated to his case during the trial, planned to call about two dozen witnesses, including Trump, according to court records. In a court filing, he described the president as an “insecure ego idiot — mad fool.” Trump did not appear as one of his witnesses, nor did many others.

Early on, U.S. Attorney John Shipley told jurors Routh “obsessively followed the movements” of Trump in the months leading up to the attempt to end his life.

Shipley said Routh used the internet to monitor him on the campaign trail, in his private plane and at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach — right up to the moment Routh set up a “sniper’s nest” at the Trump International Golf Course a year ago.

Security sweep on course

As the Republican candidate stood on the fifth-hole putting green last September, Fercano, the Secret Service agent, was riding a golf cart in a security sweep of the sixth hole and noticed someone hiding behind a chain-link fence in the southeast corner of the course. He spotted the scope of a rifle sticking through the tree-lined enclosure.

Federal authorities said the man lurking behind the cyclone fence was Routh. He had traveled from North Carolina to South Florida with a semi-automatic rifle in mid-August of last year to carry out the attempted execution of the former president at Trump International Golf Club, according to the FBI.

Authorities said Routh set up his “sniper’s nest” along the fence on the southern end of the sixth hole as he waited to take a shot at Trump just a few hundred yards away. When the Secret Service agent fired four shots at him after spotting his rifle sticking through the fence, Routh fled but he left the weapon behind with his fingerprints on the electrical tape attached to the scope, according to the FBI.

A witness driving by the club saw Routh running across the road from the golf course and getting into a black Nissan Xterra. The witness, Tommy McGee, reported the information, along with a partial license plate number, to law enforcement. McGee testified for the government at Routh’s trial.

Routh was later stopped that same day while heading north on I-95 by Martin County sheriff’s deputies, in coordination with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Shipley, the prosecutor, told jurors that Routh’s case has two “heroes” — Fercano and McGee.

According to an FBI criminal complaint and affidavit, agents found an SKS semiautomatic rifle with an attached scope and an extended magazine where Routh had been hiding by the fence on the perimeter of the golf course. The serial number on the rifle was obliterated and unreadable. Hanging from the fence was a backpack and a reusable shopping bag — each containing a plate capable of stopping small arms fire, according to prosecutors.

FBI agents later found Routh’s documents containing a handwritten list of dates in August, September and October of last year and venues where the former president had appeared or was expected to be present. Records for two of the cell phones found in the Nissan Xterra showed that on multiple days and times from Aug. 18 to Sept. 15 of last year, Routh’s mobile phone accessed cell towers located near Trump International and Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.

Soon after Routh’s arrest amid widespread news coverage, a civilian witness in North Carolina contacted law enforcement stating that Routh had dropped off a box at his residence several months before the attempted assassination attempt, according to trial evidence. The box contained a smattering of items, including ammunition, building materials, four cell phones and handwritten letters.

The witness, Lazaro Plata, who had once worked with Routh, testified at this trial, verifying for jurors that the defendant had left the incriminating box with him before heading to West Palm Beach to target Trump.

One of the letters found in the box, which was addressed as “Dear World,” outlined Routh’s plans: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job,” according to part of the letter filed in court.

In the letter, Routh offered a $150,000 reward “to whomever can complete the job.” Among the grievances outlined in the letter is that Trump, during his first term as president, “ended relations with Iran” and that, consequently, “the Middle East has unraveled.”

Prior criminal history

Routh has a criminal history dating back more than two decades. He was convicted in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2002 for possessing an explosive device. He was convicted again in North Carolina in 2010 on multiple counts of possessing stolen goods, according to authorities.

Originally from North Carolina, Routh most recently lived in Hawaii. In a court filing, prosecutors said they found a Hawaii driver’s license in Routh’s name in his car, along with six cell phones. One of those phones contained a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico.

Investigators also said that law enforcement found handwritten notes, including one containing the list of dates and locations where Trump had been or was scheduled to appear.

A notebook recovered from the vehicle was filled with “names and phone numbers pertaining to Ukraine, discussions about how to join combat on behalf of Ukraine, and notes criticizing the governments of China and Russia.”

The vehicle that Routh had fled in — the black Nissan Xterra — also bore a license plate that was not registered to the car, according to the court filing. The plate had been stolen from a vehicle in Florida, prosecutors said.

Routh held passionate political views. He said he regretted voting for Trump and was so disturbed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that he mounted a motley effort to assemble recruits to help fight on the front lines, according to his social media accounts.

He reached out to the New York Times to discuss his theories on the war and to discuss his heroic endeavors to fight and die in Ukraine, the paper reported. He also tried to meet with the Helsinki Commission to persuade them to do more for Ukraine, the Times reported.

Routh’s social media accounts, suspended by Facebook and X, show a man whose political viewpoints shifted over the years, ranging from support of politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Trump — to his support last year of former Republican presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.

In his self-published book, “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” Routh openly wrote about his desire to end Trump’s life: “No one here in the U.S. seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection.”

Information from NBC News was used to supplement this report.

This story was originally published September 23, 2025 at 2:55 PM.