He didn't just plan it. He expected to fail.
When the Department of Justice went public with the Ryan Wesley Routh letter in late 2024, it sent a shockwave through the legal and political world. It wasn't just a confession. It was a $150,000 bounty on a former president’s life, written months before Routh ever stepped foot onto that Florida golf course.
Honestly, the whole thing feels like something out of a bad thriller novel, but the stakes were as real as they get.
The Chilling Contents of the "Dear World" Letter
The letter starts with a direct admission that's hard to stomach. Routh wrote, "This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you." He talked about giving it all the "gumption" he could muster.
Think about that for a second.
He wrote this before the actual incident at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. He had already accepted his own failure as a foregone conclusion. The letter was found inside a box that Routh had dropped off at a friend's house months earlier, in April 2024. That box sat there, unopened, containing ammunition, a metal pipe, and several letters, until after Routh was arrested in September.
The most disturbing part? The bounty. Routh explicitly offered $150,000 to anyone who could "complete the job." He ranted about Trump being "unfit to be anything," claiming that a president must embody the "moral fabric" of America.
It’s a bizarre contradiction—a man claiming to care about "moral fabric" while trying to incite a global hit on a political figure.
Why Did the DOJ Release It?
This is where things get messy. Former Attorney General William Barr called the decision to release the Ryan Wesley Routh letter "rash." Many legal experts were basically dumbfounded. Why would the government put a $150,000 bounty back into the public consciousness?
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The DOJ’s logic was rooted in the detention hearing. Prosecutors needed to prove that Routh wasn't just some guy with a gun in the bushes—they had to prove he was a "flight risk" and a "danger to the community." By showing he had pre-written a confession and was actively trying to recruit others to finish his "work," they made it impossible for any judge to grant him bail.
Still, the move was controversial. Critics argued the government could have used the letter in court without releasing the full, incendiary text to the media. They worried it would act as a "how-to" guide or a rallying cry for other extremists.
A Pattern of Planning
The letter wasn't the only piece of evidence that suggested Routh was playing a long game. When he was caught on I-95 after fleeing the golf course, his black Nissan Xterra was a mobile command center.
Inside, police found:
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- Six different cellphones.
- A handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was expected to appear.
- A notebook filled with critiques of the Russian and Chinese governments.
- A digital camera and a loaded SKS-style rifle left behind at the scene.
He had been staking out the golf course for nearly 12 hours. Cell tower data showed him in the vicinity from roughly 2:00 a.m. until the moment a Secret Service agent spotted his rifle barrel poking through the tree line at 1:31 p.m.
The Self-Published Manifesto
You’ve gotta look at his 2023 book to really understand the mindset behind the Ryan Wesley Routh letter. In a self-published ebook titled Ukraine’s Unwinnable War, Routh actually apologized to Iran for ever voting for Trump.
He wrote, "You are free to assassinate Trump."
It’s rare to see a paper trail this long and this public. Most people who plot these kinds of things try to stay under the radar. Routh did the opposite. He was screaming his intentions into the void for years before he ever picked up a rifle. He was an activist for Ukraine, trying to recruit soldiers to fight, but his efforts were mostly dismissed as eccentric or even delusional by the people he tried to help in Kyiv.
Legal Fallout and the Trial
By September 2025, a federal jury in Miami didn't take long to decide his fate. Routh, who at one point tried to represent himself and even asked the judge why he couldn't face the death penalty, was convicted on all counts.
The Ryan Wesley Routh letter was the smoking gun for the "intent" requirement of his attempted assassination charge. Without that letter, a defense attorney might have argued he was just a confused man with a gun. With the letter, it was an open-and-shut case of premeditated political violence.
What This Means for Public Safety
If there’s one thing to take away from this, it’s that the "lone wolf" narrative is often more complicated than it looks. Routh wasn't a ghost; he had a 100-page criminal record and a history of barricading himself in buildings with automatic weapons dating back to 2002.
The system missed the warning signs, but the letter he left behind ensured he wouldn't get a second chance to "finish the job."
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Key Takeaways for Following the Case:
- Search for the unredacted filings: If you want the full context, look for the DOJ’s detention memo from September 23, 2024.
- Monitor the sentencing details: Federal sentencing guidelines for attempted assassination of a major candidate often lead to life imprisonment.
- Compare the evidence: Look at how his "Dear World" letter aligns with the coordinates found in his Nissan Xterra to see the scope of his planning.
The story of the Ryan Wesley Routh letter is a reminder that in the age of self-publishing and social media, the most dangerous plans are often hidden in plain sight, waiting for someone to finally open the box.