Man who tried to shoot Trump at Florida golf course gets life in prison
Fort Pierce (US) (AP): A man convicted of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison after a federal prosecutor said his crime was unacceptable "in this country or anywhere."
US District Judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh's fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts.
"American democracy does not work when individuals take it into their own hands to eliminate candidates. That's what this individual tried to do," Assistant US Attorney John Shipley told the judge.
Defense attorney Martin L Roth argued that "at the moment of truth, he chose not to pull the trigger."
The judge pushed back, noting Routh's history of arrests, to which Roth said, "He's a complex person, I'll give the court that, but he has a very good core."
Routh then read from a rambling, 20-page statement. Cannon broke in, said none of what he was saying was relevant and gave him five more minutes to talk.
"I did everything I could and lived a good life," Routh said, before the judge cut him off.
"Your plot to kill was deliberate and evil," she said. "You are not a peaceful man. You are not a good man."
She then issued his sentence: Life without parole, plus seven years on a gun charge. His sentences for his other three crimes will run concurrently.
In a statement on the social platform X, US Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked prosecutors for ensuring that Routh "will never walk free again."
'Ryan Routh's heinous attempted assassination of President Trump was not only an attack on our President -- it was a direct assault against our entire democratic system," Bondi said.
Routh's sentencing was initially scheduled for December. But Cannon agreed to move it back after Routh decided to use an attorney during the sentencing phase, instead of representing himself as he did for most of the trial.
Routh was convicted of trying to assassinate a major presidential candidate, using a firearm in furtherance of a crime, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm as a felon and using a gun with a defaced serial number.
"Routh remains unrepentant for his crimes, never apologised for the lives he put at risk, and his life demonstrates near-total disregard for law," prosecutors said in their sentencing memo.
His defense attorney had asked for 20 years plus the mandatory seven for the gun conviction.
"The defendant is two weeks short of being sixty years old," Roth wrote in a filing. "A just punishment would provide a sentence long enough to impose sufficient but not excessive punishment, and to allow defendant to experience freedom again as opposed to dying in prison."
Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the Republican presidential candidate played golf on September 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.
At trial a Secret Service agent helping protect Trump on the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and run away without firing a shot.
In the motion requesting an attorney, Routh offered to trade his life in a prisoner swap with people unjustly held in other countries and said an offer still stood for Trump to "take out his frustrations on my face."
"Just a quarter of an inch further back and we all would not have to deal with all of this mess," Routh wrote. He added, "but I always fail at everything (par for the course)."
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
