Trump shooting plot suspect Routh was interviewed by NYT on Ukraine war efforts in 2023: 'Sounded ridiculous'

The man suspected of an assassination attempt on former President Trump’s life on Sunday went on the record with the New York Times last year to promote his efforts to recruit Afghan soldiers to fight the war in Ukraine.
More than a year ago, Ryan Routh spoke to the New York Times after spending "months" in Ukraine during its war against Russia. Routh, whom the New York Times described as a former North Carolina construction worker, told the outlet that as the number of foreign volunteers fighting on behalf of Ukraine in a military unit called the International Legion dwindled, he was working to recruit Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban to join the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
"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," the New York Times reported in an article published on March 25, 2023.
"We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country," Routh told the outlet in an interview from Washington, D.C.
Routh was arrested Sunday afternoon after allegedly taking an AK-47-style rifle to the Trump International Golf Club, and pointing it through a chain-link fence toward where Trump was playing golf.
Routh fled the area in his car and was soon apprehended by authorities on I-95. Trump was not injured during the incident, and the campaign quickly issued a statement that he was safe on Sunday afternoon.
Fox News Digital pored over Routh’s apparent social media accounts on Sunday and found he prolifically posted about world events, Trump, the 2020 election, and the previous attempt on Trump’s life in July. "I am flying to Ukraine to fight. We need to launch a media campaign to encourage every human around the globe to meet in Ukraine and join in the fight. We need hundreds of thousands of civilians to make the cost of war high for putin and a flood of fighters," he posted on Feb. 17, 2022. Following repeated messages declaring his intention to fight on behalf of Ukraine, he posted in April that he was in Kyiv. "I am here in kyiv and want to use Independence Park to create a tent city of all the foreigners here in support to get thousands more foreign civilians to come and support Ukraine," the account posted. In another post, he declared in all caps that he was willing to "FIGHT AND DIE" in Ukraine. "I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE," he posted in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.
His X account was suspended following police confirming his name on Sunday.
The New York Times reporter who interviewed Routh last year about his efforts in Ukraine published an essay Sunday regarding the interview and article. The reporter, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, explained that he was put in touch with Routh by a former colleague from Kabul, and noted that Routh was one of the first interviews he conducted for the March 2023 piece. "Mr. Routh, who had spent some time in Ukraine trying to raise support for the war, was seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. And so the former Afghan soldier reckoned Mr. Routh could get him to the Ukrainian front. (Anything, even war, was better than the conditions in Iran for Afghans after the Taliban retook Kabul in August of 2021.)," the essay explained.
Routh told the reporter that while he was eager to rally support and volunteers to fight on behalf of Ukraine, he did not fight in Ukraine citing his age and his lack of military experience. Routh is 58 years old as of 2024. "In my opinion everyone should be there supporting the Ukrainians," he told the reporter. Routh told the New York Times last March that he had built a list hundreds of names long of Afghans living in the Middle East whom he planned to recruit and help transport to Ukraine.
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