Would-Be Trump Assassin's Social Media Account Is Deleted, But We Have His Posts: Here Are the Worst Ones
Fifty-eight-year-old Ryan Routh is behind bars now, accused of orchestrating an unsuccessful assassination attempt against GOP presidential nominee former President Donald Trump.
In his incarcerated state, Mr. Routh won’t be able to spread his political opinions; perhaps, we’ll discover what benefit he thought he would achieve by murdering a former president in court, if he is indeed alleged to have hatched a plot to kill Trump — but, beyond that, nobody is going to give a platform to a madman.
Thankfully, social media did that prior to his arrest — and most of it was archived before his accounts were deleted, including some of his most unhinged posts.
The full list, for the curious, was archived by a user in a video before the account was suspended:
These are the posts from his main timeline.
Most posts went straight to replies, which is what happens when you start a post with an @. pic.twitter.com/GJgSgBSFbv
— Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@BillboardChris) September 15, 2024
Here’s a takeaway of some of the most bizarre moments from the man charged with being the latest would-be Trump assassin.
1) Routh was obsessive in his support of Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Routh, as you may have heard through the media, was an avid supporter of the Ukrainian cause in its war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia, going so far as to travel to the country to help Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces with logistics in some small way.
Fanatical, in fact, might be a more appropriate word — and in a very literal sense in which it’s almost never used because of political correctness; he seems to have been a near-madman in his devotion to the cause, despite apparently having no seeming connection to the country other than a hatred for its invader.
“I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE,” he said in one post on Twitter, now X, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Routh had talked with numerous publications about his motivations to go to Ukraine, including The New York Times, and came away sounding significantly more sane than he did on social media, although still not in compos mentis. He told the paper in 2023 that he was trying to get Afghan soldiers who had fought against the Taliban into the country to fight Russia, adding: “We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country.”
In fact, his feed was a constant drumbeat practically ordering everyone on social media to Kyiv, posthaste: “WE MUST ALL GO TO UKRAINE AND FIGHT– I am flying from Hawaii to stand for democracy,” he said on Feb. 20, 2022. “Please launch a media campaign to get thousands around the globe to join Ukraine and increase the cost of war for Putin. Please reach out to me; I need your support; help me.”
Some of his more bizarre tweets involved reaching out to celebrities for help — including musicians like Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.
“Can you help me produce a song for Ukraine,” he asked Knopfler in a post from Feb. 22, 2023. “I have some lyrics to capture the pain of the war. It needs you raspy soulful voice. We must keep the war front of mind.”
In another post to Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, he said that “they only way to end the war is to KILL PUTIN IN HIS BED AT NIGHT. Attack Moscow — I will pay for the polish planes and fly them at night just above ground and hit every place Putin sleeps. I AM FLYING TO POLAND TO BUY THE PLANES — and then to Ukraine to fight.”
2) Routh’s posts indicated he had shifted his attention toward the 2024 American presidential campaign starting earlier this year.
Up until March of this year, Routh was still begging celebrities for that song for Ukraine; the most recent was Elton John on March 1. His posts then began taking a much darker turn.
On April 21, he asked Elon Musk if he could buy a rocket from him, noting, “I wish to load it with a warhead for Putins Black sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please.”
He then turned his attention to the U.S. election — and began echoing rhetoric from the Biden-Harris campaign — essentially calling Trump a dictator.
“Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free,” he posted at Biden’s official @POTUS account. “Trumps should be MASA …make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose. We cannot afford to fail. The world is counting on us to show the way.”
Note the similarity to posts like this from Joe Biden’s official account:
Democracy and freedom are on the ballot this November.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 22, 2024
On July 16, he posted at both Biden and Harris, telling them to visit those injured in the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“You and Biden should visit the injured people in the hospital from the Trump rally and attend the funeral of the murdered fireman,” he wrote to Harris. “Trump will never do anything for them….show the world what compassion and humanity is all about.”
That was the last post on his X account before it went dark.
3) Routh’s hatred of Trump was obvious even before the invasion of Ukraine.
While he hadn’t posted at or about Trump much during his period of Ukraine fanaticism, he seems to have loathed him before this — claiming to have voted for him in 2016 but being disappointed in him for undisclosed reasons.
“While you were my choice in 2106, I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving; are you retarded,” he wrote on June 10, 2020.
“I will be glad when you gone,” he added.
4) Routh’s timeline was indicative of a man who was deeply deluded about his place in local, national and international politics in general.
Routh was, indeed, an unbalanced individual on a number of levels — and Ukraine, Putin, Trump, and the Biden-Harris White House weren’t his only concerns.
For instance, independent Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi was a target of his because Blangiardi is in the process of dismantling the so-called “Haiku Stairs.” As SF Gate noted, “The stairs were first erected in 1942, during World War II, to reach a top-secret radio facility. … Hikers could access the stairway up until 1987, but the U.S. Coast Guard decided to close the site to visitors after the stairs were vandalized.”
It has nevertheless attracted numerous trespassers and is not only a danger to those using it due to its dereliction, but also poses quality of life concerns for those who live by the stairs.
Routh not only posted at former Blangiardi mayoral rival Keith Amemiya suggesting a way to “remove Rick from office” and urging him to reach out, he also begged singer Bruno Mars to hold a benefit concert to save the stairs in several posts from mid-July.
He also seemed to have an obsession with peace with North Korea. In one May 2020 post, he told Kim Jong Un, “I would like to invite you to Hawaii for vacation. We would love to have you here and entertain you. With the current virus it is vacant and private and it would be an honor to have you at our beaches. I an a leader here and can arrange the whole trip. Please come.”
Earlier this year, he also posted at Seth Rogen, urging him and James Franco — who made a movie mocking Kim Jong Un, “The Interview” — to attempt a reconciliation with the North Korean leader.
“You and James Franco must use your status to meet with Kim Jong un and show him we are friends and we want the best for him and his people. Dennis Rodman did it,” he wrote. “Let us change history.”
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