Suspect in Trump assassination attempt veers off topic and forfeits
opening statement at trial
[September 12, 2025]
By DAVID FISCHER
FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A suspect on trial for trying to assassinate
President Donald Trump while he played golf in South Florida last year
forfeited his right to continue making an opening statement on Thursday
when he veered off topic and talked about Adolf Hitler and the wars in
Ukraine and Gaza.
Ryan Routh, who is representing himself, was warned by U.S. District
Judge Aileen Cannon to stay on topic. The judge twice asked jurors to
leave the courtroom so she could deal with the unconventional turn in
Routh's opening statement.
Both Routh and prosecutors had been given 40 minutes each to make
opening statements, but Routh's initial argument, read from a written
statement, lasted less than 10 minutes before the judge said he had
forfeited the right to continue because he was addressing unrelated
matters.
“I gave you one more chance and you continued to read what has no
relevance for this case," Cannon said.
During the prosecution's opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney John
Shipley told jurors that Routh wanted to make sure that Trump wasn't
re-elected to the White House.
“This plot was carefully crafted and deadly serious,” Shipley said.
Routh has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a
major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several
firearm violations.
Prosecutors have said Routh, 59, methodically plotted to kill Trump for
weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf
on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. A Secret Service
agent spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh
aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his
weapon and flee without firing a shot.
Just nine weeks earlier, Trump had survived another attempt on his life
while campaigning in Pennsylvania. That gunman had fired eight shots,
with one bullet grazing Trump’s ear, before being shot by a Secret
Service counter sniper.
Five witnesses testified Thursday, including two Secret Service agents,
two FBI agents and a witness who followed Routh in his car after the
shooting so he could write down his license plate.
Tommy McGee, the witness, testified that he was driving by the golf
course when he heard the gunshot and saw a man running out of bushes
into the street, almost hitting his car. McGee said the suspect looked
at him straight in the eye. Once the suspect jumped in a car and fled,
McGee said, he followed him out of a desire to help the police, not
realizing that Trump was involved.
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This courtroom sketch shows lead government prosecutor John Shipley
speaking during the opening statements of the during the trial of
Ryan Routh, who is charged with attempting to assassinate Donald
Trump last year at a golf course in South Florida, Thursday, Sept.
11, 2025, in Fort Pierce, Fla. (Lothar Speer via AP)
Routh asked only a few questions of the witnesses on
cross-examination, and when he did he referred to himself in the
third-person, leading to some awkward exchanges with Secret Service
Agent Robert Fercano, who had spotted him in the bushes. Routh asked
the agent if he had been harmed by what happened, and Fercano
replied, "I wasn’t physically harmed, but I was mentally harmed from
you pointing a gun at me."
Fercano described being in a golf cart only five feet (1.5 meters)
from Routh when he saw him pointing a gun from the bushes.
The trial began nearly a year after prosecutors say Fercano thwarted
the attempt to shoot the Republican presidential nominee. It's
expected to run two or three weeks. The trial’s start comes as
police search for the gunman who killed conservative influencer
Charlie Kirk at a campus in Utah on Wednesday in what political
leaders are calling an assassination.
Cannon is a Trump-appointed judge who drew scrutiny for her handling
of a criminal case accusing Trump of illegally storing classified
documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years
had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out
to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent
plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses
have told The Associated Press.
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit
soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians.
In his native Greensboro, North Carolina, he was arrested in 2002
for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers
with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass
destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch
(25.4-cm) fuse.
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