Trump assassination attempt suspect detailed shooting in a note – and offered $150k to anyone who could ‘complete job’

Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

Find out moreClose

As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.

Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.

Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election

Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A Florida man accused of a botched assassination attempt against Donald Trump on 15 September sketched out his plan in a handwritten note that offered a six-figure payout to anyone who could finish off the former president.

In the note, which was shared with the FBI by a “civilian witness”, according to a court filing by federal prosecutors, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, seemed to predict he would ultimately be unsuccessful at killing Trump.

He wrote: “Dear World, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you.”

The message said: “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $ 150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”

The note took exception to Trump’s handling of Middle Eastern affairs, stating he “ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled”.

Routh dropped off the note at the unidentified witness’s home “several months prior” to the assassination attempt, according to the filing, in which prosecutors argued for keeping Routh detained pending trial.

“After learning of the September 15, 2024, incident at Trump International, the witness opened the box,” the filing states. “The witness stated the box contained ammunition, a metal pipe, miscellaneous building materials, tools, four phones, and various letters.”

Routh staked out the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, where he allegedly targeted Trump with an SKS assault-style rifle for more than a month, according to the filing. Members of Trump’s Secret Service detail spotted Routh poking the barrel of the gun through some vegetation at the perimeter of the course and gave chase, apprehending him a short while later in a Nissan Xterra fitted with a licence plate belonging to another vehicle. The weapon, along with body armor, was left behind at the scene, authorities said.

A search of the SUV turned up, among other things, two additional plates, six phones, 12 pairs of gloves, and a handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October with the venues where Trump would be appearing, according to the filing. Investigators also found a notebook with “dozens of pages filled with names and phone numbers pertaining to Ukraine, discussions about how to join combat on behalf of Ukraine, and notes criticizing the governments of China and Russia”.

Routh had also been lurking around Trump’s private club-turned-residence, Mar-a-Lago, on “multiple days,” the filing states, citing phone records obtained by the FBI.

Tina Cooper, who worked for Routh at a Virginia roofing business he owned before closing up shop and moving to Hawaii a few years ago, told The Independent that her former boss had been known around town for doing “stupid s***.”

Routh “did some stupid s*** down here, and... got away with some of it,” Cooper said a few hours after Routh’s arrest. But, she continued, “What drives people to do stupid s*** in this day and time? I mean, come on now.”