Authorities have raided the North Carolina home of suspected would-be Trump assassin Ryan Wesley Routh — whose pickup truck has a Biden-Harris sticker on the bumper.
It’s not clear if the bulletproof-vest-clad officers found anything inside the Greensboro house, which they surrounded, made sure was empty and searched in the dark late Sunday, according to video published by The Times, a UK outlet.
“Police! Make yourself seen!” an officer yelled as authorities made their way inside with flashlights and drawn handguns.
Law enforcement arrested Routh, 58, after he allegedly stalked former President and current GOP nominee Donald Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course Sunday afternoon.
Routh had an AK-47 style assault rifle, the barrel of which a Secret Service agent spotted poking out of a bush two holes ahead of where Trump was, according to the Daily Mail.
The agent opened fire on Routh, who was within about 500 yards of the former president — well within the rifle’s effective range.
The bullets missed Routh but scared him off, officials said. The suspect fled but was collared soon after, based on a golf-course witness’s description of his car, during a traffic stop on I-95.
Here’s what we know about the assassination attempt on Trump in Florida:
Routh — who voted for Trump in 2016 but turned on him after the Jan. 6 riots, among other things — left a voluminous online presence that showed support for figures on both sides of the aisle, including Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Nikki Haley.
Eventually, the suspect began supporting the Biden-Harris ticket, whom he endorsed with a bumper sticker on his white pickup truck at his Hawaii home, the Mail said.
He registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, voter records show. He most recently voted in-person during the state’s March Democratic primaries.
Routh has also made 19 small donations since 2019 to ActBlue, a Democratic political action committee, campaign finance records show.
On Monday morning, a shackled Routh was led into federal court in Florida to face charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, according to Politico. It wasn’t immediately clear what his felony conviction was for.
The initial criminal complaint didn’t include specific charges that he tried to kill the former president, the outlet said.
The potential assassin — who has a lengthy rap sheet that includes a 2002 charge for possessing a weapon of mass destruction — also had in his possession backpacks and a GoPro camera with which he planned to film the shooting, officials said.
Follow the latest on the foiled assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Florida:
Routh’s neighbors in North Carolina have described him as “a little cuckoo” but said they were still surprised he tried to take Trump’s life.
“I mean, trying to shoot Trump? That’s a lot,” a resident said.
“I would have never guessed, and I would have swore up and down, ‘No, that’s not him,’ ” she said.
“I just can’t believe it. I mean, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I mean the pictures and stuff and all, then I wouldn’t be able to believe that.”
Routh said on social media in 2020 that he voted for Trump four years before but had hoped he would be a “different and better” president than he was a candidate.
“We all were greatly disappointed and it seems you are getting worse and devolving; are you retarded,” Routh wrote at the time. “I will be glad when you gone (sic).”
He even self-published a 2023 book — called “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War” — in which he described Trump as a “fool” and a “buffoon” for several of his actions and policies.
In his book, Routh added that he got “so tired of people asking me if I am a Democrat or Republican as I refuse to be put in a category.”
With Post wires