Ryan Wesley Routh, the man arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course, used to lead a bizarre double life: part radical political commentator, part would-be assassin. His 2023 self-published book, *Ukraine’s Unwinnable War*, reads like a fever dream—a manifesto where he cast himself as a soldier of justice in global politics.
In the book, as first reported by The New York Times, Routh doesn’t mince words. He openly offers Iran an invitation to eliminate Trump, writing, “you are free to assassinate Trump,” after apologizing for the U.S. withdrawal from the Obama-era nuclear deal. The passage feels jarring, a mix of apology and incitement that exposes his deep-seated frustration. His disdain for Trump, however, wasn’t always so venomous. At certain points, he reflects on his previous, somewhat positive, views of the former president, even going so far as to suggest that his readers should feel free to kill him too, for his past mistakes.
But his fury doesn’t stop with Trump. Routh’s book, a sprawling 291 pages, is filled with vitriol directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he sees as a modern-day tyrant. In a chapter bluntly titled “Why has Putin not been assassinated?” he draws a chilling comparison to Hitler, lamenting the lack of action to prevent such figures from wreaking havoc on the world. “We all ponder as to why our great minds did not simply kill Hitler early on,” he writes, “and now why have we not taken steps to kill Putin at all costs.”
Yet, quite surprisingly, Routh sees North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in a much more favorable light. He describes Kim as a “reasonable” leader, someone who could potentially be swayed by diplomacy. His grandiosity reaches new heights when he suggests that he, alongside former NBA star Dennis Rodman, should serve as ambassadors to North Korea, saying, “If an NBA basketball star like Dennis Rodman can make a peaceful friendship with Kim, then perhaps he and I should be ambassadors to North Korea.”
The bizarre content of Routh’s book aligns closely with his online persona, where he frequently posts about his desire to fight for Ukraine and his seething hatred for authoritarian regimes. But his contempt for Trump remains one of the central threads throughout. He refers to the former president as a “fool,” “idiot,” and “buffoon,” and blames him for the events of January 6th, describing the insurrection as a catastrophe “perpetrated by Donald Trump and his undemocratic posse.”
Trump, in particular, has faced consistent warnings about his safety, particularly from Iran. Last year, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man who had allegedly tried to hire a hitman to target U.S. political figures, with Trump believed to be one of the intended victims. Routh’s apparent plot, while shocking, fits into such unsettling pattern.
