Ryan Wesley Routh, 59, was convicted of attempting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September 2024. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a Secret Service agent discovered Routh concealed along the golf course fence line and pointing what appeared to be an AK-47-style rifle in the agent’s direction. Authorities later recovered an SKS rifle with a scope, a loaded magazine, steel armor plates, and a camera positioned toward the golf course.
Evidence presented at trial showed that Routh’s phone had accessed cell towers near Trump International Golf Club and Mar-a-Lago on multiple occasions in the weeks preceding the incident. Prosecutors also introduced a handwritten letter Routh had left with a witness months earlier in which he described his actions as an assassination attempt on Trump and expressed regret that it had failed.
In September 2025, a federal jury convicted Routh on all five counts against him, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal law enforcement officer. On February 4, 2026, he was sentenced to life in federal prison plus 84 months.