Suspect in Trump assassination bid dubbed Pakistan ‘corrupt’. Here’s why

The fifty-eight-year-old American citizen arrested on Sunday for allegedly trying to kill former President Donald Trump in Florida wanted to recruit ex-Afghan soldiers currently living in Pakistan and Iran to fight against Russian forces in Ukraine.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that the suspected gunman, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, sought recruits for Ukraine from among Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban after they seized power in August 2021.

“We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan since it’s such a corrupt country,” the newspaper quoted Routh as saying.

Even though Routh told the newspaper that “dozens” of former Afghan soldiers had shown interest in joining the war in Ukraine, it’s uncertain whether Routh followed through and succeeded in recruiting anyone from countries like Pakistan and Iran.

Thousands of former soldiers and officers belonging to the Afghan National Security Forces—including the army, special forces, national police, and intelligence service that operated under the government of Ashraf Ghani—sought refuge in Pakistan and Iran after the Taliban took over Kabul amid a hurried exit by the American forces three years ago.

Millions of Afghans have lived in Pakistan and Iran during the last 40 years as Afghanistan faced non-stop war. Last year, Pakistan ordered about 1.7 million refugees to leave by November 1. Subsequently, about 300,000 people had to return to Afghanistan as the Pakistani authorities resorted to forced deportations.

Afghans in Pakistan have faced repatriations in the past as well. However, analysts say the past drives were never on this scale. Islamabad claims it carried out the mass expulsion to protect public welfare and make Pakistan safer.

Penchant for violent rhetoric

Routh has had repeated brushes with law enforcement dating back to 2002 when he was charged with possessing a fully automatic machine gun and barricading himself inside a building.

A former roofing contractor, Routh harboured and worked towards grand ambitions like bringing peace to Ukraine and Syria and ending conflicts in Taiwan and North Korea.

One of his posts on social media platform X said he was willing to go to the border of Ukraine to “fight and die” even though he had no military experience.

In addition to raising a ragtag army to defend Ukraine, Routh also co-wrote a book with his girlfriend about his failed efforts—a 291-page, poorly drafted monologue that’s selling on Amazon for $2.99.

“I personally have failed humanity and wasted 5 months [in Ukraine] with no measurable success. I gave up and quit; the worst of humans. I am the failure, the hypocrite, the loser that wants the world to change but let communism beat me down and exhaust me and send me home,” he wrote.

“How could I have let this happen? A mere 5 months and I run for home, not even with the first bit of mud, or cold or the first bullet, and I am beaten and exhausted in the simplest elementary ground floor challenges of good and evil; and I fail.”