Alleged Attempted Trump Assassin Ryan Routh Has Decided to Represent Himself

There's an old saying that suggests that anyone who represents themselves in court has a fool for an attorney, but that might be especially true in higher-stakes cases. Nevertheless, Ryan Routh, a man who stands accused of attempting to assassinate President Trump at his golf course in Florida before the 2024 election, has said that he plans to represent himself when his trial gets underway.

Routh was apprehended by a Secret Service agent from his hiding spot at the Trump International Golf Course and never attempted to harm the president. Here's what we know about why he decided to represent himself in the case.

When Routh first asked Judge Aileen Cannon if he could represent himself in the case, she said it was a "bad idea," according to NBC News.

Routh insisted, though, that he and his lawyers were “a million miles apart," and his court-appointed public defenders agreed, saying that the relationship was “irreconcilably broken.”

Nevertheless, Cannon has ordered that the defenders remain in the court on standby as jury selection gets underway.

Routh, a former Trump supporter, will be tasked with selecting from a pool of 180 people to sit on his trial. At a hearing last week, he also said that he wanted to subpoena Trump himself for the trial, and has also asked for a number of other witnesses to be brought in, including a former paramour that Routh claimed could testify to his "gentleness."

“That is clearly absurd,” Cannon said, denying his request.

Of course, the reason that Routh is on trial at all is because he has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer, as well as several firearm violations. He faces life in prison if he is convicted on the most serious charge, and is currently being held without bail in prison at Fort Pierce.

Although Routh has been shackled for many of his pre-trial hearings, Cannon has ordered that he be allowed to dress in business attire when representing himself in the case. Routh has also been allowed to question witnesses from the well in the courtroom, but he will not be allowed to wander from that spot.

“If you make any sudden movements, marshals will take decisive and quick action to respond," Cannon said at a hearing.

Prosecutors are claiming that Routh methodically planned to kill the president while he was still on the campaign trail, and that he was executing on a plan he had been working on for weeks when he hid on Trump's golf course. Routh reportedly aimed his rifle at the Secret Service agent who spotted him, causing the agent to open fire.

Routh fled without firing a shot and was caught a short while later. Routh has repeatedly disparaged the president during the course of the trial and even challenged him to a golf match in a pretrial motion.

“A round of golf with the racist pig, he wins he can execute me, I win I get his job. (sorry hillbilly Vance),” he wrote.