As more details emerge about Ryan Wesley Routh, the picture of a deeply unstable, radicalized individual comes into sharper focus—and the connections to his political journey are both troubling and revealing. Routh, who once supported Donald Trump in 2016, had by the time of the assassination attempt on Sunday, firmly turned against the former president. A clear signal of his political shift is found in his driveway, where his truck proudly displayed a “Biden-Harris” sticker, reflecting his new allegiances.
But political disillusionment alone doesn’t explain Routh’s descent into violence. His personal history is littered with run-ins with the law. A police officer from North Carolina, where Routh spent some time, noted he was frequently arrested—an early red flag that points to a troubled individual with a penchant for disregarding the law.
INSANE: Trump FL shooter appeared in a AZOV Battalion propaganda video in May 2022
This 100% has CIA asset written all over it
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) September 16, 2024
What really sets Routh apart, however, is his obsessive fixation on Ukraine. This wasn’t a casual supporter of the war-torn nation. Routh went to extreme lengths to signal his allegiance to Ukraine, even dying his hair in the colors of its flag and throwing himself into the cause.
His connection to Ukraine goes deeper than social media posts, though. Routh appeared in a propaganda video for the AZOV Brigade, a group notorious for its far-right and ultra-nationalist leanings. His appearance in this video, combined with his radicalized behavior, raises serious questions about the types of extremist influences that shaped his worldview.
Here’s where the situation takes a strange and alarming turn. Routh wasn’t the only Trump assassin hopeful with an odd connection to propaganda videos. The first would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks, also appeared in a similar propaganda video before his own attack attempt. This eerie coincidence seems too odd to ignore—two men with extremist leanings, both appearing in propaganda videos for globalist-aligned groups, both attempting to kill Donald Trump.
BlackRock yanks 2022 ad featuring Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks https://t.co/Ti0WYUWFbm pic.twitter.com/cvW5nIxB1N
— New York Post (@nypost) July 15, 2024
It’s not hard to see how Routh and Crooks may have been swept up in the kind of dangerous rhetoric that’s been flowing from the American left in recent years. Prominent Democrats, media figures, and others have repeatedly branded Donald Trump as an existential threat to democracy, creating an environment where violent individuals like Routh and Crooks feel justified in acting on those words.
The left has spent years stirring up extreme rhetoric against Trump, and the consequences are beginning to show. Weak men like Routh and Crooks, driven by a mix of disillusionment and radicalization, have acted on that rhetoric. Donald Trump, narrowly escaping two assassination attempts, is facing an increasing danger fueled by the inability of his political opponents to rein in their words or emotions.
