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A man who devised a plan to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course in September 2024, just two months ahead of the U.S. presidential election, has received a life sentence.
Ryan Routh, aged 59, was found guilty in September of attempting to take the life of then-presidential candidate Trump, marking the second assassination attempt against the billionaire during the campaign that ultimately saw him return to the White House.
In a courtroom session, Judge Aileen Cannon delivered a life sentence plus an additional seven years after a 90-minute hearing, stating the decision was made “to protect the public from future crime” by Routh.
“The evil is in you. Not in everybody else,” she remarked to Routh.
Routh was apprehended on September 15, 2024, after a Secret Service agent noticed a rifle barrel emerging from the bushes surrounding the West Palm Beach golf course, where Trump was engaged in a round of golf prior to the November election.
The agent opened fire and Routh, who fled in a vehicle, was arrested shortly afterwards.
The sentencing was the culmination of a trial that featured Routh representing himself, despite no legal training.
Routh reportedly requested strippers and a golf putting green while in detention, and asked that jurors be selected according to their views on Gaza and Trump’s desire to purchase Greenland. The demands were rejected.
Routh’s planned attack on Trump came just two months after another assassination attempt on the Republican leader, on 13 July in Pennsylvania, where 20-year-old Matthew Crooks fired several shots during a rally, one of them grazing Trump’s right ear.
The attack, in which a rally-goer was killed, proved to be a turning point in Trump’s return to power. Crooks was immediately shot by security forces and his motive remains unknown.
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