Ryan Routh is on trial on charges of trying to assassinate Trump. Now he wants to golf with him

The first trial in nearly 40 years of someone accused of nearly assassinating a president is turning into a circus.

Ryan Routh, charged with trying to shoot President Trump on his West Palm Beach golf course last summer, is representing himself at his trial, which began Monday at a federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Mr. Routh, 59, has requested a wild list of witnesses and has pitched an unorthodox proposal to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to settle the case quickly: He would face off against Mr. Trump on the golf course, and if the president wins, Mr. Routh said, “He can execute me.”

Judge Cannon rejected that proposal and most of Mr. Routh’s other kooky requests, but his unhinged court behavior showed no signs of abating when jury selection began.

Judge Cannon stepped in to reject “irrelevant” and “off-base” questions Mr. Routh planned to ask prospective jurors.

Mr. Routh, who has a felony conviction and no legal training, wanted those who might be picked to rule on his guilt to share their views about “Palestine” as well as Mr. Trump’s proposed acquisition of Greenland.

He also wanted to know whether prospective jurors would stop if they spotted a turtle in the middle of the road while driving.

Although the hearing was a bizarre start, the trial is no joke.

Mr. Routh is facing life in prison for what federal prosecutors say was a well-planned attempt to assassinate Mr. Trump while he played at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 14, 2024.

Prosecutors say Mr. Routh was deadly serious when he crawled into the bushes on the outskirts of the sixth hole, pointed a loaded semiautomatic rifle directly at the green and waited.

Mr. Trump was playing the fifth hole and was less than 500 yards from Mr. Routh’s gunsight when a Secret Service agent spotted his rifle protruding from the shrubbery.

The agent shot at Mr. Routh, and Mr. Routh fled the scene. He was captured later by sheriff’s deputies in a neighboring county.

Federal law enforcement amassed a mountain of evidence against Mr. Routh. In addition to seizing the weapon and other evidence Mr. Routh left behind at the golf course lair, prosecutors obtained a written confession in which he admitted to his plans to try to assassinate Mr. Trump. In it, Mr. Routh offered $150,000 “to whomever can complete the job.”

Mr. Routh entered a not guilty plea, but his strange courtroom tactics resembled those of someone pursuing an insanity defense.

Jurors could indeed find Mr. Routh not guilty despite the evidence if they deem him to be insane, legal experts said.

“The government’s case is strong,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The Washington Times. “Routh’s only real chance of acquittal or a hung jury is a mental health defense or jury nullification. Otherwise, this will be a quick guilty verdict, and the only real question is what kind of circus will we see before we get there.”

Opening statements are slated to begin Thursday for a trial expected to last several months.

It’s the first major trial of an alleged attempted presidential assassin in decades.

Other people have been charged and convicted over the years in less sophisticated plots to harm U.S. presidents, but few came as close as Mr. Routh. Federal investigators said he was minutes away from having Mr. Trump in the sight of his loaded rifle.

A month before the alleged assassination attempt in Florida, Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Mr. Trump at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The bullet grazed Mr. Trump’s ear.

Crooks killed a rally attendee, Corey Comperatore, and severely injured two others before he was shot dead by a Secret Service agent.

Mr. Routh’s trial begins 43 years after John W. Hinckley Jr. went on trial for attempting to kill President Reagan. Mr. Hinckley injured Reagan and several others when he fired at the president as he left a Washington hotel in March 1981.

Mr. Hinkley was found not guilty on all counts by reason of insanity. He was institutionalized for decades and granted an unconditional release in 2022.

Mr. Routh isn’t formally seeking an insanity defense.

Despite having no legal training, Mr. Routh fired his court-appointed attorneys earlier this summer. He told Judge Cannon in July that he had two mental health evaluations and at least one doctor told him he did not qualify for an insanity defense.

Jurors will likely hear Mr. Routh’s dislike of Mr. Trump as the motivating factor for his actions.

Before the alleged assassination attempt, Mr. Routh left a trail of social media posts expressing a strong animus for Mr. Trump, support for then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign and an obsession with supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Court documents filed by Mr. Routh since his arrest show that his scorn for the president has not abated. He referred to Mr. Trump as “insecure ego idiot-mad fool” in one document seeking to call Mr. Trump as a witness. Judge Cannon rejected his request.

Mr. Routh requested to submit an odd list of evidence that includes his Eagle Scout recommendation, designs for a skate park, a photo of him kneeling with the Ukrainian flag and a photo of a book, “Improvised Explosives.”

Mr. Routh also sought to call as a witness a onetime girlfriend who could attest to his peaceful nature. The woman “wanted me to spank/slap ass and I —refused; I will not spank, choke or pull hair — NO,” Mr. Routh wrote on his proposed exhibit and witness list filed in court on Sept. 2.