Trump's Second Assassination Suspect Ryan Wesley Routh's Former Friend Reveals His Last Message

Trigger Warning: This article contains themes of gun violence that some readers may find distressing.

Donald Trump, once again, escaped a life-threatening attempt at his life by Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect who has now been arrested in Florida. While people are curious to know what conspired him to commit the crime, his friend, who cut all ties with the 58-year-old assassin after he opened fire at the Republican nominee, revealed the last message he received from Routh. 

Remus Cernea, a Romania-based journalist, once considered Routh his friend as they spent time together in Ukraine. He told Newsweek he received a message from the suspect asking for help with his VISA as he wanted to volunteer in the Ukraine war against Russian invasion and fight for the country. 

Several of his social media posts affirmed he was a vocal critic of Trump and Cernea said Routh passionately wanted to fight in the Ukrainian International Legion but stood "no chance" because he had no prior military experience. "Ryan is sometimes a bit like a child, let's say. Very emotional," adding, that he was willing "to die" for Ukraine. 

The ex-friends first met in Kyiv in June 2022 when they sat down for an interview to discuss activities in Ukraine. They both exchanged frequent messages and resources regarding the ongoing conflict and requested Cernea's help so he could recruit foreigners to fight against Vladimir Putin's invasion and join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion- a military unit of the Ukrainian Army containing foreign volunteers. 

On August 14, 2023, "[Routh] tried to bring some people from Asia to Ukraine, but they needed the visa, and the visa is not so easy to get," Cernea said. Of course, it was over my powers. I couldn't help him in any way." So he didn't respond to Routh's request in the messages and instead directed to an article he published on the Ukrainian conflict to which the suspect responded with "Thanks so much."

Routh was armed with an AK-47-style rifle and was barely 300-500 yards from Trump, aiming from a tree line at the ex-president's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. The Secret Service spotted him and opened fire at the suspect but he "did not fire or get off any shots at our agent," acting director Ronald Rowe said, as per CBS News. Although he escaped the scene, the officials hunted him down later and took him into custody. 

Aside from Trump's potential assassination attempt, Routh has a long criminal history and frequently broke laws starting from 1990 when he was charged with writing bad checks, in 2002 he was found in possession of a weapon of mass destruction. According to the North Carolina Department of Corrections, he was charged with misdemeanors, including hit-and-run offenses, resisting arrest, and concealed weapons violations. 

His social media accounts, which have now been suspended, were filled with hate-spewing messages for Trump and Cernea noted, "Maybe he thought that Trump is not a friend of Ukraine. Maybe if Trump wins, [Routh thought] aid for Ukraine will stop," considering the 78-year-old politician has never openly supported Ukraine against Russia. 

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