The suspect in the Trump assassination attempt “planned” to recruit Afghan soldiers to fight in Ukraine via Pakistan

Washington: A 58-year-old man arrested in connection with an alleged assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has said in an interview in 2023 that he plans to recruit potential Afghan soldiers through Pakistan to fight Russia in Ukraine.

Ryan Wesley Routh, who authorities suspect attempted to attack the Republican presidential candidate during a round of golf, made these remarks to The New York Times.

In a 2023 newspaper interview, Routh also said he was looking for recruits for Ukraine among Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban. He said he planned to bring them to Ukraine, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran. He said dozens had expressed interest.

“We can probably buy some passports through Pakistan because it is such a corrupt country,” he was quoted as saying by the New York Times.

In his public statements he showed pro-Ukrainian views, which is why he was interviewed by several news organizations, including The New York Times And Semafor in 2023.

Routh is an independent affordable housing developer in Hawaii who has at times criticized the former president.

This was the second assassination attempt on Trump within two months. In July, a life-threatening attack on the 78-year-old Trump during his campaign rally in Pennsylvania shocked the entire nation. Trump injured his right ear after the young gunman fired several shots at him during the campaign rally.

During the attack on Sunday, Trump was on the square, just a few hundred meters away, when secret service agents discovered Routh hiding in the bushes and opened fire, police officers were New York Times.

He fled the scene in a vehicle and was arrested during a traffic stop. A rifle with a telescopic sight, a camera and two backpacks were found in the bushes, the report continued.

Routh, who authorities suspect attempted to attack the former president during a round of golf, posted comments on an associated X-account referencing the July assassination attempt on Trump, CNN reported.

In separate posts, Routh tagged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and urged them to visit those injured at the rally.

“You and Biden should visit the injured at the Trump rally in the hospital and attend the funeral of the murdered firefighter. Trump will never do anything for them,” he wrote in a post addressed to Harris.

Routh, who has a long criminal record in North Carolina, frequently posted political topics and has donated exclusively to Democratic candidates and causes since 2019, the New York Post reported.

In an April 22 post on X, he also attacked Trump, saying, “Democracy is on the ballot, and we can't lose.” In an April 22 post on X, when Biden was still running for re-election, he advised the 81-year-old Biden to run a campaign about keeping “America democratic and free.”

He claimed that Trump wanted to “make Americans slaves against their masters.” Meanwhile, Oran Routh, the son of the man accused of trying to assassinate Trump, said his father traveled to Ukraine and volunteered to provide “humanitarian” aid to troops defending the country against Russian forces set to invade in 2022, The Guardian reported.

Oran said his father was passionate about Ukraine's cause.