There are many questions circulating about the second assassination attempt of Donald Trump in two months. Yet one that will particularly set conspiracy theorists abuzz is whether Ryan Wesley Routh, the alleged suspect in West Palm Beach, made meaningful contact with any foreign governments.
Social media is already lit up with people comparing 58-year-old Routh to Lee Harvey Oswald, who at one point defected to the Soviet Union, met with Soviet officials at the embassy in Mexico shortly before the shooting of President John F. Kennedy, and allegedly mingled with Cuban intelligence. These facts are highly credible, but are often used by less credible members of the tinfoil hat brigade in colourful ways.
Routh, though, seems to have travelled to Ukraine and Taiwan in recent months. He at least sought to make contact with their governments for the purpose of defending each country from invasions, according to posts on his X account.
Both the New York Times and Semafor quoted Routh in 2023, and the reporters in question are each now sharing more information about why. Writing in the Times, Thomas Gibbons-Neff said: “I was put in touch with Mr. Routh through an old colleague and friend from Kabul, Najim Rahim. Through the strange nexus of combatants as one war ended and another began, he had learned of Mr. Routh from a source of his in Iran, a former Afghan special operations soldier who was trying to get out of Iran and fight in Ukraine.” To be clear, Gibbons-Neff is saying his own source knew of Routh through a contact in Iran.
“Mr. Routh, who had spent some time in Ukraine trying to raise support for the war, was seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban,” the story continued. “And so the former Afghan soldier reckoned Mr. Routh could get him to the Ukrainian front.” What’s more, Routh reportedly “talked of buying off corrupt officials, forging passports and doing whatever it took to get his Afghan cadre to Ukraine, but he had no real way to accomplish his goals”.
Former Semafor reporter Tanya Lukyanova, who now works for The Free Press, said Routh told her that “Ukraine is very often hard to work with. Many foreign soldiers leave after a week in Ukraine or must move from unit to unit to find a place they are respected and appreciated.” Lukyanova claimed that Routh appeared back then as “just a harmless loon”.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe