Man who tried to shoot Trump at Florida golf course will get life in jail

A person convicted of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced Wednesday (February 4, 2026) to life in jail after a federal prosecutor mentioned his crime was unacceptable “on this nation or wherever.”

U.S. District Choose Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s destiny in the identical Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors discovered him responsible on all counts.

“American democracy doesn’t work when people take it into their very own fingers to eradicate candidates. That is what this particular person tried to do,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer John Shipley informed the decide.

Protection lawyer Martin L. Roth argued that “in the mean time of fact, he selected to not pull the set off.”

The decide pushed again, noting Routh’s historical past of arrests, to which Mr. Roth mentioned, “He is a fancy individual, I am going to give the court docket that, however he has an excellent core.”

Routh then learn from a rambling, 20-page assertion. Ms. Cannon broke in, mentioned none of what he was saying was related and gave him 5 extra minutes to speak.

“I did every part I may and lived a very good life,” Routh mentioned, earlier than the decide lower him off.

“Your plot to kill was deliberate and evil,” she mentioned. “You aren’t a peaceable man. You aren’t a very good man.”

She then issued his sentence: Life with out parole, plus seven years on a gun cost. His sentences for his different three crimes will run concurrently.

In a press release on the social platform X, U.S. Lawyer Common Pam Bondi thanked prosecutors for guaranteeing that Routh “won’t ever stroll free once more.”

“Ryan Routh’s heinous tried assassination of President Trump was not solely an assault on our President — it was a direct assault towards our complete democratic system,” Mr. Bondi mentioned.

Routh’s sentencing was initially scheduled for December. Nevertheless, Ms. Cannon agreed to maneuver it again after Routh determined to make use of an lawyer through the sentencing part, relatively than representing himself as he had for many of the trial.

Routh was convicted of attempting to assassinate a significant presidential candidate, utilizing a firearm in furtherance of against the law, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm as a felon and utilizing a gun with a defaced serial quantity.

“Routh stays unrepentant for his crimes, by no means apologised for the lives he put in danger, and his life demonstrates near-total disregard for regulation,” prosecutors mentioned of their sentencing memo.

His protection lawyer had requested for 20 years plus the obligatory seven for the gun conviction.

“The defendant is 2 weeks wanting being sixty years previous,” Mr. Roth wrote in a submitting. “A simply punishment would offer a sentence lengthy sufficient to impose ample however not extreme punishment, and to permit the defendant to expertise freedom once more versus dying in jail.”

Prosecutors mentioned Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Mr. Trump earlier than aiming a rifle via shrubbery because the Republican presidential candidate performed golf on September 15, 2024, at his West Palm Seaside nation membership.

At trial, a Secret Service agent serving to shield Mr. Trump on the golf course testified that he noticed Routh earlier than Mr. Trump got here into view. Routh aimed his rifle on the agent, who opened hearth, inflicting Routh to drop his weapon and run away with out firing a shot.

Within the movement requesting an lawyer, Routh supplied to commerce his life in a prisoner swap with folks unjustly held in different nations and mentioned a suggestion nonetheless stood for Mr. Trump to “take out his frustrations on my face.”

“Only a quarter of an inch additional again and all of us wouldn’t must take care of all of this mess,” Routh wrote. He added, “however I all the time fail at every part (par for the course).”