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The forgotten Trump assassination attempt
Washington Examiner ^ | September 19, 2025 | Byron York

Posted on 09/19/2025 5:29:54 PM PDT by fluorescence

You might not be aware of it, but there is a trial going on in Florida for Ryan Routh, the man authorities say came within minutes of carrying out his plan to assassinate President Donald Trump on Sept. 15, 2024, during the presidential campaign.

The Routh assassination attempt came just two months after Thomas Crooks fired a high-velocity rifle round that hit Trump in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. One man was killed and two others were wounded in Crooks’s attack. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper after firing eight rounds.

Crooks’s motive has never been clear. That is not to say he did not have one. But all levels of law enforcement — Secret Service, police, and others — have been decidedly nontransparent in this case. When the subject came up on Fox News recently, anchorman Bret Baier, with frustration in his voice, said, “We still ask questions about the shooter in Butler. We still do not have the answers that we have been seeking, either from Capitol Hill or from authorities.”

Routh’s motive, on the other hand, is clear. He is a hardcore anti-Trump warrior who was obsessed with a) the war in Ukraine, and b) ridding the world of the threat of Donald Trump.

Routh, 59, has worked off-and-on as a builder and roofer. He has also racked up weapons charges in the last 25 years or so. In the past few years, he has claimed to be recruiting foreign fighters to go to Ukraine to fight the Russians. And then, authorities say, he began plotting to kill Trump.

Routh researched where Trump would be at various times in the fall of 2024. He spent time scoping out Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s various golf destinations in South Florida. And he helpfully composed a handwritten note, which he began with “Dear World,” explaining his intentions, presumably to be discovered if he was unable to kill Trump. “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you,” Routh wrote. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”

By September 2024, police say Routh had been living for a few weeks out of his car at a truck stop in South Bay, Florida. Around 2:00 a.m. on Sept. 15, he set up what police called a sniper’s nest at a shrubbery-covered fence on the sixth hole of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. He brought with him a Chinese SKS semiautomatic rifle with a scope and extended magazine, two backpacks with bulletproof plating inside them, a GoPro camera, and a pack containing Vienna sausages, which were apparently a staple of his diet at the time.

According to prosecutors, Routh set up the gun, pointing through the fence with a clear shot at the sixth hole. As Trump was on the fifth green, Secret Service agents moved ahead to check out the next hole. Agent Robert Fercano, who was going ahead of Trump’s group, testified that he noticed “abnormalities” around the tree line. Fercano said he saw someone’s face and thought there was a homeless person in the trees. Fercano was just a few feet away from Routh when he saw the SKS. “The barrel of the rifle was continuously moving in my direction,” Fercano testified. “I made the decision to fire my service weapon in the last known direction of the subject.”

Routh, who was not hit, scrambled out of the woods, jumped in his car, and got away. He was later stopped and arrested on I-95. Now, he is charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, and other counts.

Routh has pleaded not guilty to everything. In his trial, he is defending himself. You know that saying that “a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client”? That appears doubly true of Routh, who is not only not a lawyer but might also be crazy. Look, for example, at this account of Routh’s opening statement before federal Judge Aileen Cannon:

Routh began by asking “what happened to homo erectus” and proceeded to address violence in other countries, mentioning Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Adolf Hitler. “Putin has murdered 1.5 million and we do nothing,” Routh said. Cannon interrupted Routh after less than five minutes, warning him to “stay within bounds.” Routh told the judge his argument centers on “nonviolence” and said he could talk about the Constitution. At one point, Routh grew emotional as he continued addressing the jury, crying softly as he spoke of America and invention, mentioning the Wright Brothers’ contributions.

OK, he might definitely be nuts. But here is the thing. No matter Routh’s state of mind, the fact is that an assassination-crazed gunman got agonizingly close to shooting Trump, who at the time was the former president running for the White House again. And that was just 64 days after another would-be assassin, Thomas Crooks, actually shot Trump in Pennsylvania. And yet in some parts of the media and political world, both assassination attempts, especially Routh’s, seem to have disappeared down the memory hole. Why is that?


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: 202409; 20240915; adolfhitler; assassination; assassinationattempt; assassinationplots; benjaminnetanyahu; florida; hitler; isolatedincidents; israel; netanyahu; putin; routh; ryanrouth; south; tinfoilonparade; truckstop; trump; ukraine; vladimirputin

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1 posted on 09/19/2025 5:29:54 PM PDT by fluorescence
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To: fluorescence

I thought it was the local PD counter-sniper team that shot Crooks.


2 posted on 09/19/2025 5:32:20 PM PDT by MortMan (Charter member of AAAAA - American Association Against Alliteration Abuse)
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To: fluorescence

And the third one in CA.


3 posted on 09/19/2025 5:35:03 PM PDT by decal (They won't stop, so they'll have to be stopped)
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To: decal

“And the third one in CA.”

Please explain. I do not know of that and can find nothing.


4 posted on 09/19/2025 5:39:53 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: MortMan

I believe the local PD saw him on the roof but there wasn’t any order to take him out. The SS shot him after he got 8 rounds off.


5 posted on 09/19/2025 5:40:24 PM PDT by fluorescence
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To: fluorescence

Massive cover up going on with the Pennsylvania one. Bongino, says one man operation. Nothing to see here.


6 posted on 09/19/2025 5:43:00 PM PDT by roving
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Maybe I’m remembering it wrong but there was a rally (I think in CA) where a guy with a firearm was caught before he got in.

Not long after the incident with Routh.


7 posted on 09/19/2025 5:45:20 PM PDT by decal (They won't stop, so they'll have to be stopped)
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To: fluorescence

Butler was a biden op that failed. Thank God!
This is what investigation is shamefully absent on.


8 posted on 09/19/2025 5:47:50 PM PDT by Recompennation
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To: fluorescence

We know nuttin’ honey about the Butler, Pa. Shooter.


9 posted on 09/19/2025 5:51:33 PM PDT by Paladin2 (YMMV)
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To: decal

While Trump was speaking behind a lecturn, some guy rushed Trump, but was tackled by body guards.

IDK the location.


10 posted on 09/19/2025 5:55:54 PM PDT by Does so ("Things will now change in Minneapolis AND AT HOME"....Dem☭¢rat... ∅ ™ ¿ ¡ ☞ ½¼)
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To: decal
Good memory! I forgot about that one. From Grok...
Yes, there was an incident at a Trump rally in Coachella, California, on October 12, 2024, where a man named Vem Miller, a 49-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada, was arrested at a checkpoint near the venue. Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies found him in possession of a loaded handgun, a shotgun, and a high-capacity magazine, along with multiple fake passports and driver’s licenses. Miller had a fake VIP pass and press pass for the event. Sheriff Chad Bianco stated that the arrest likely prevented a third assassination attempt on Trump, though Miller denied any intent to harm, claiming he was a Trump supporter. He was charged with state-level firearms violations and released on $5,000 bail, with a federal investigation ongoing but no assassination-related charges filed as of the latest reports.

As of September 19, 2025, the Vern Miller criminal case remains in pre-trial proceedings in Riverside County Superior Court, with no reports of a trial date being set or occurring.Key Case Updates:

Separately, Miller filed a $100 million civil defamation lawsuit against Sheriff Bianco, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, and the county on March 10, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging violations of his constitutional rights and false portrayal of the incident as an assassination attempt. This civil case is also unresolved as of the latest reports.
$ONE HUNDRED MILLION! Should have been tossed as frivolous the day it was filed.
11 posted on 09/19/2025 5:57:24 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: fluorescence

When hundreds of billions are being laundered in the name of Ukraine, finding thousands to entice a hitter(s) is small potatoes.

If it was the mulatto messiah or his installed imbecile having close brushes with assassins, the feds would still be at DEF CON 2 this very day.

Against us.


12 posted on 09/19/2025 6:02:08 PM PDT by BAN-ONE
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To: fluorescence
Once again. Crooks died from osmosis of a bullet that somehow entered his brain without being fired by a gun. It's one of the main reasons we cannot know anything else about the attempted assassination. All we need to know is "he got 8 rounds off".

Remember the lady SS director that got fired? She was actually telling the truth about the inclined roof, she just misspoked. She was supposed to say it was a slippery slope. That's why they have to prove it by getting everyone to buy the Crooks shot his gun 8 times and nobody pulled a trigger to kill him.

Getting everyone to buy and repeat the first obvious lie is tantamount to hiding the truth forever.

13 posted on 09/19/2025 6:20:36 PM PDT by WhoisAlanGreenspan? (GO Tigers)
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To: fluorescence

The SS shot him after he got 8 rounds off.
_______________________________________
The SS shot him after he got 8 rounds off - - - and miserably failed to take out Trump, i.e., no longer of value. That tells you all you need to know. And how about all the phones, overseas contacts, and bank accounts totaling upwards of a million dollars? No, that hit by the intelligence community was an abject failure. That is why it has been quickly buried. Now, we have the same thing going on in the Kirk shooting that is equally screwed up but at least the got their man in this one. However, with this one they have to deal with a still alive ‘accused/patsy,’ which makes the need for splainning very messy.


14 posted on 09/19/2025 6:33:17 PM PDT by iontheball
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To: iontheball
Many cell phones were recording audio of the event, nothing short of a January 6th SWAT team roundup and arrests was ever going to confiscate all those recordings so a narrative became the answer; 'Crooks 8 shots'.

The audio of the gunshots proves multiple shots were fired by multiple weapons in different locations. The first several shots had no echo, possibly because they were fired from inside the building Crooks was on top of, they're timing seemed deliberate and professional.

About five shots came next in rapid succession, all with the same sound and same echo sounds. The final shot of that group sounds different yet again. Those five shots could have been eight shots but that's not the point. That final shot of that group sounded different because it was probably the Police officer's shot that broke Crook's rifle stock, remember that? It's another story they buried. That ended Crook's ability to fire and nothing happened for 10 seconds until the sniper took his shot.

So at least 10 shots, likely 4 different weapons creating four different sounds. All neatly packaged up as the lone wolf and his 8 shots. Rinse and repeat.

15 posted on 09/19/2025 7:49:48 PM PDT by WhoisAlanGreenspan? (GO Tigers)
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To: fluorescence

Well, with all due respect, TRUMP HIMSELF forgot about it. Let the crime scene get scrubbed immediately, has ZERO (public) curiosity about Maxwell Yearick, and likely has ZERO idea who he is. And seemingly has NO plans t enact revenge on the deep state who organized this.


16 posted on 09/19/2025 8:42:19 PM PDT by Captainpaintball (America needs a Conservative DICTATOR if it hopes to survive. )
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