Summary
Ryan Wesley Routh, the man suspected of attempting to assassinate former U.S. President Donald Trump, has been spotted in an old video from AmericanYouTubestar Jidon “JiDion” Armani Adams. The long-timeYouTuberis seen mocking Routh in the recently resurfaced clip.
In the early afternoon hours ET on Sunday, September 15, Secret Service agents spotted a man pointing the barrel of a rifle through some bushes at the golf course near the Mar-a-Lago Club, where former President Trump was playing at the time. According to a subsequent statement from theFederal Bureau of Investigation, the agents opened fire, causing the man to flee. He was found and apprehended shortly afterward. National media promptly identified the man as Ryan Wesley Routh, a North Carolina-born 58-year-old U.S. national with a Kaʻaʻawa, Hawaii residence.
Suspected Would-Be Trump Assassin Spotted in Old JiDion Video
Although Routh’s social media accounts were banned within hours of his name making the headlines, some online traces of him still remain. E.g., the suspected would-be Trump assassin was spotted in an old video bycontroversial YouTuber JiDion, in which he is seen trying to get the streamer to accept some kind of pamphlet while ranting about a variety of topics. “I don’t do paper,” JiDion can be heard saying repeatedly in a mocking tone. The YouTuber confirmed he remembers the encounter in a statement to DramaAlert.
JiDion Told Trump Assassination Attempt Suspect He’s a Call of Duty ‘Veteran’
The contents of the pamphlet that Routh was trying to get JiDion to accept are unclear. Near the end of the video, the YouTuber mockingly proclaimed himself to be a veteran of theclassicCall of Dutymultiplayer map Nuketown. Routh didn’t understand the reference, retorting that he thinks “it’s better to serve and fight the powers.” Prior to that, the suspected would-be Trump assassin proclaimed that “Ukrainians have a right to fight back.”
One of the current theories about Routh’s motivation for attempting to assassinate Trump has to do with his strong support for Ukraine to win its defensive war against Russia. This is something that the former US President doesn’t agree with, as he has repeatedly emphasized he wants to end the war quickly—which would ostensibly require a settlement—rather than advocating for a decisive Ukrainian victory. CNNreportedthat Routh went as far as to contact Ukraine’s foreign legion multiple times but was never part of its forces. In the days leading up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Routh tweeted dozens of times, writing, among other things, that he’s “ready to go to Ukraine and fight and die.”
In the recently surfaced JiDion video, Routh can be heard saying that he’s “looking for revolutionaries, looking for people who want to take this whole system down.” There are currently no indications that the thwarted assassination attempt will affect the schedule ofTrump’s ongoing US presidential campaign.
