Border Officials Flagged Second Trump Assailant after Return from Ukraine

It has been revealed that the suspect in the second assassination attempt against President Trump, Ryan Wesley Routh, was flagged as suspicious by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ultimately refused to investigate him.

Just The News reports that upon Routh’s return to the United States from Ukraine in June of 2023, CBP officials interviewed him at the Honolulu airport. The agents were aware that he had traveled to Warsaw, Poland in 2022 and Istanbul, Turkey in 2023, as part of his efforts to get into Ukraine. Routh admitted during interrogation that he had recruited over 100 foreign fighters into the Ukrainian war effort, including men from Afghanistan, Moldova, and Taiwan.

Routh gave the agents a business card which listed him as the director of the “International Volunteer Center,” a group which claimed to be active in Israel, Pakistan, and Syria.

“Subject is a USC (U.S. citizen) who had traveled to Kiev, Ukraine for 3 months to help recruit Soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova, and Taiwan, to fight in the Ukrainian war against Russia,” the interview notes state.

“Subject stated that he does not get paid for his recruiting efforts and all his work for the Ukrainian government is strictly volunteer work Subject provided his recruiting business card (cards have been uploaded into the event) which list his recruiting partners that he speaks with to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Romanian, Pakistan, Syria, and Israel,” the notes continued. “Subject stated that he obtains money from his wife to help fund his trips to Ukraine.”

Following the interrogation, the CBP officers referred him to DHS for further investigation due to suspicious remarks he made. However, the agency refused to take a closer look.

“HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) was contacted and refused the case,” the memo from the interview noted.

There have been reports of multiple instances where Routh became known to federal authorities as a suspicious and potentially dangerous person. He was first flagged in 2019 under suspicion of possessing a firearm despite being a convicted felon. In June of 2022, a nurse who worked with Routh in Ukraine reported him to CBP.

On Sunday, September 15th, Routh managed to sneak onto the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where former President Donald Trump was playing golf. With an AK-47, he hid in the foliage and took aim at the former president before a Secret Service agent noticed the barrel of the weapon protruding from the treeline, at which point the Secret Service opened fire in his direction. Routh fled in his vehicle, but was eventually stopped and arrested in neighboring Martin County.

This marks the second assassination attempt against President Trump in two months, after an attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13th saw an assassin’s bullet narrowly miss President Trump’s head, striking his ear, before he was rushed offstage by Secret Service agents. The assailant in Butler managed to kill one rallygoer and severely injure two others before he was killed by the Secret Service.