A newly surfaced interview with Donald Trump’s would-be-assassin shows him discussing his efforts to support Kyiv, as it is revealed that he travelled to Ukraine after he claimed that the war with Russia was a simple case of good versus evil.
Ryan Wesley Routh, the named suspect in a possible assassination attempt near Trump’s golf club on Sunday, was interviewed by Newsweek Romania back in 2022, in which he expressed his discontent with world leaders over the handling of the conflict.
‘It seems asinine that we have a leader of a country that does not understand the concept of being unselfish and being generous and being kind and just the basic moral values that are required by human beings these days…it blows my mind’.
‘We gotta stand for humanity, for human rights, for everything that is good with the world.
‘Why world leaders aren’t sending military is beyond me.
Ryan Wesley Routh speaking to Newsweek Romania about the Russia-Ukraine War in 2022
Ryan Wesley Routh holds up a banner during a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday April 30, 2022
Ryan Wesley Routh pays tribute to foreign citizens killed during Russia-Ukraine war in a central square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022
‘We are going to have to elect new leaders the next time that have a backbone and have the fortitude to say hey, we’re not going to tolerate this type of behaviour.
‘Does the world not care? That’s the feeling I wrestle with everyday’.
He also spoke to Newsweek about his motivation to help Ukraine fight Vladimir Putin’s troops. A former construction worker from Greensboro, North Carolina, Routh spent several months in Ukraine in 2022.
‘The question as far as why I’m here — to me, a lot of the other conflicts are grey, but this conflict is definitely black and white,’ Routh told Newsweek.
‘My original goal was to come and fight. All of us, from the entire planet, should be motivated to support the Ukrainian army, but I’m 56 years old and have no military experience, so I’m not an ideal candidate to actually fight.
‘So plan B was to come to Kyiv and promote the idea of many others coming to join the International Legion. We need thousands of people here to fight alongside the Ukrainians.’
Routh had also posted a video of himself in Ukraine in 2022 claiming to have helped rally soldiers for the International Legion, Ukraine’ military unit for foreign volunteer fighters,.
Ryan Routh, who allegedly tried to shoot Donald Trump at one of his Florida golf courses, is taken into custody on Sept. 15, 2024
Now-deleted Facebook profile of Ryan Routh, who allegedly tried to shoot Donald Trump at one of his Florida golf courses on Sept. 15, 2024
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‘I am willing to fly to Krakow and go to the border of Ukraine to volunteer and fight and die,’ he wrote on X weeks after the Russian invasion.
In video footage posted online, Routh outlined his role for those wondering why he had travelled to the war-torn country.
‘Most wonder what I’m doing in Ukraine. This is a center to help people when they come from other countries have a location, someone to talk to as a greeting committee to get them in the location they need to be,’ he said while wearing a stars and stripes kerchief around his neck.
‘We’re helping foreigners be as useful as possible, to maximize their potential. Everyone here is self-funded. Everyone is struggling with money to be fuel. Any support would be tremendously appreciated,’ he pleaded.
Routh, who had no military experience, outlined his plan to recruit fighters by moving Afghan soldiers, in some cases illegally from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. At the time he said dozens had expressed interest.
‘We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,’ he said in during an interview at the time.
Writing on the messaging app Signal, Routh stated: ‘Civilians must change this war and prevent future wars’ as part of his profile bio.
Shortly after the war began, Routh directed an X message to Elon Musk, in which he wrote: ‘I would like to buy a rocket from you. I wish to load it with a warhead for Putin’s Black sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please.’
So dedicated was Routh to Ukraine’s war effort he even helped cut the grass at Independence Square in Kyiv using scissors.
Ryan Wesley Routh, right, takes part in a rally in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 30, 2022
This screengrab taken from AFPTV on September 16, 2024 shows Ryan Wesley Routh speaking during an interview at a rally to urge foreign leaders and international organisations to help provide humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and Ukrainian servicemen from Mariupol in central Kyiv on April 27, 2022
Despite Routh’s plight to help Kyiv beat the Russians, Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky has condemned the apparent assassination attempt, expressing that there is no place for political violence.
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‘I am glad to hear that Donald Trump is safe and unharmed. My best wishes to him and his family. It’s good that the suspect in the assassination attempt was apprehended quickly. This is our principle: the rule of law is paramount and political violence has no place anywhere in the world’, the Ukrainian leader said on X.
The resurfaced Newsweek interview comes after eagle-eyed Secret Service agents opened fire on Routh yesterday after spotting Routh pointing a rifle through a fence lining Trump’s private golf club in West Palm beach a few hundred yards away from the former president.
The incident took place exactly two months after a separate assassination attempt against Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The FBI described it as an apparent attempted assassination on the GOP nominee.
Routh had voted for Trump in 2016 over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, but in 2019 he began making small donations to Democratic candidates, according to The Times.