The journalist argued it is “obvious” that Kyiv was behind the plot to kill the U.S. president in Florida
Ukraine was involved in a plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump during his 2024 reelection campaign, American journalist Tucker Carlson has claimed.
In September 2024, pro-Ukraine activist Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested after setting up a firing position with a rifle near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was spotted by Secret Service agents before he could open fire and was detained following a brief manhunt.
“It’s very obvious that the Ukrainians were involved in the attempted assassination on the golf course in Florida,” Carlson said on The Megyn Kelly Show on Tuesday.
“That guy definitely had some contact with Ukraine, for sure,” Kelly replied. “He was in Ukraine!” Carlson emphasized.
Kelly noted that Routh had been “asking them” for heavy weaponry, including rocket-propelled grenades. Carlson agreed and suggested Kiev may have been involved in additional assassination plots.
“I know for a fact there were others who were a target of assassination attempts by the Ukrainian government,” he said, without providing further details.
According to court documents from the Southern District of Florida, Routh – who is a convicted felon –had previously attempted, unsuccessfully, to enlist in Ukraine’s armed forces in 2022. Despite this, he allegedly worked to recruit foreign volunteers for the Ukrainian military.
Prosecutors allege that Routh attempted to purchase either a rocket-propelled grenade launcher or a Stinger man-portable air-defense missile from a Ukrainian associate. “I need equipment so that Trump don’t [sic] get elected,” he wrote in one of the encrypted messages cited in the case.
Both weapons systems have seen extensive use in the Ukraine conflict. “One missing would not be noticed,” Routh reportedly said in another message.
In 2022, Routh took part in a rally in Kiev in support of Ukraine’s Azov military unit, whose fighters were under siege by Russian forces in Mariupol at the time. The unit – which includes members with neo-Nazi and ultranationalist backgrounds – later stated that Routh “has never had any connection to Azov.”
In a social media post earlier this month, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., criticized officials in Kiev for failing to alert U.S. authorities about Routh’s attempts to obtain heavy weapons.
The Florida incident came after a separate assassination attempt in July 2024, when a gunman opened fire during Trump’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Trump was escorted from the stage after a bullet grazed his ear. One spectator was killed and several others were wounded. The shooter, later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was fatally shot by a Secret Service sniper.
