A New York Times report was discovered on Sunday mentioning Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who was caught targeting Trump, armed with a scoped AK-47 rifle in West Palm Beach before shots were fired by the Secret Service.
The New York Times was actually in contact with and interviewed Routh for their article.
In an oddly coincidental Truth Social post, just hours before the attempted shooting, Trump said, “THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES IS A TRUE THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!”
The article from the Times ties the would-be shooter to nutbag MSNBC terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance, who once called for ISIS to bomb the Trump Tower in Istanbul.
In 2022, when war broke out in Ukraine, Nance traveled to Ukraine and claimed he had joined the fighting against Russia.
The New York Times editorial, titled “Stolen Valor: The U.S. Volunteers in Ukraine Who Lie, Waste and Bicker,” references the International Legion created by Ukraine for allied foreign fighters to join the war effort, which both Routh and Nance were part of.
Routh is mentioned twice in the article. He alleges that he had planned to move recruits for the war effort into Ukraine illegally from Pakistan and Iran. New York Times excerpt:
With Legion growth stalling, Ryan Routh, a former construction worker from Greensboro, N.C., is seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. Mr. Routh, who spent several months in Ukraine last year, said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest.
“We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” he said in an interview from Washington.
It is not clear whether he has succeeded, but one former Afghan soldier said he had been contacted and was interested in fighting if it meant leaving Iran, where he was living illegally.
Hellbound and Down 