A U.S. federal judge has sentenced Ryan Routh, the man convicted of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, to life imprisonment, bringing to a close one of the most serious political violence cases in recent American history.
Routh, 59, was sentenced on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce, Florida, after a jury last September found him guilty on five criminal counts, including attempted assassination.
The incident occurred less than two months before the 2024 U.S. presidential election, which saw Trump return to the White House.
According to trial evidence, Routh hid for nearly 10 hours in thick bushes near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15, 2024.
Secret Service agents spotted him a few hundred yards from where Trump was golfing. Routh fled the scene, leaving behind a semi-automatic rifle, body-armour-like metal plates, and a video camera pointed toward the golf course. He was later arrested.
Prosecutors revealed that Routh carried six cellphones, used fake names to conceal his identity, and had tracked Trump’s movements for weeks after arriving in South Florida.
They described the plot as calculated and aimed at destabilising American democracy.
“It’s clear to me that you engaged in a premeditated, calculated plot to take a human life,” Judge Cannon said while handing down the life sentence.
Routh represented himself during the trial after firing his lawyers, despite having no formal legal training. He pleaded not guilty and later claimed jurors were misled due to his inability to mount an effective defence.
After the guilty verdict was read, Routh attempted to stab himself with a pen in court and had to be restrained by U.S. marshals as his daughter shouted that he had not harmed anyone.
At sentencing, Routh delivered a rambling statement focusing on foreign conflicts and expressed a desire to be exchanged with political prisoners abroad. He called himself a “failure” and said his sentence was “totally unimportant.”
Prosecutors had pushed for a life sentence, citing Routh’s long criminal record of at least 36 prior convictions, including illegal firearm possession.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Routh would “never walk free again,” calling the attack a direct assault on democracy.
Trump welcomed the verdict, writing on his Truth Social platform: “This was an evil man with an evil intention, and they caught him.”
The case was the second assassination attempt against Trump in 2024, following a shooting at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, underscoring heightened security concerns during the election period.
