A U.S. federal court has delivered one of the toughest verdicts in recent American political history. On Wednesday, Ryan Routh, the man behind the 2024 assassination attempt on then–presidential candidate Donald Trump, was sentenced to life in prison plus seven additional years, DKNews.kz reports.
The ruling closes a case that shocked the country during the height of the presidential campaign and underscored how close the United States came to a potentially historic tragedy.
A Plot Stopped at the Last Moment
The attempted assassination took place on September 15, 2024, at Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. According to prosecutors, Routh spent weeks planning the attack. He positioned himself in shrubbery near the golf course and aimed a rifle toward the fairway, waiting for Trump to come into view.
What stopped the plot were mere seconds.
A Secret Service agent scanning the area spotted Routh before Trump appeared. When Routh pointed the rifle at the agent, the officer opened fire. Routh dropped his weapon and fled without firing a single shot. He was arrested shortly afterward.
Prosecutors later emphasized that the outcome could have been dramatically different had the agent reacted even moments later.
“You Intended to Kill”
Routh was convicted last September on five federal charges, including attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and multiple firearms offenses.
During Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, Routh spoke for about 15 minutes. He repeated arguments from the trial, portraying himself as a “good person” and referring to his alleged efforts in Ukraine, where he claimed to have tried recruiting people for the army.
The judge cut him off.
“You are an evil person. You intended to kill Donald Trump and would have done so if not for the actions of a Secret Service agent,” she said before handing down the sentence.
The prosecution had sought a life sentence, arguing that the crime posed an extraordinary threat not only to one individual, but to the democratic process itself. Routh’s attorney asked for 20 years in prison plus a mandatory seven-year sentence tied to one of the gun convictions. The court rejected that request.
A Delayed Sentencing, a Final Verdict
The sentencing was originally scheduled for December but was postponed after Routh decided to hire an attorney for the final phase of the case. For much of the trial, he had represented himself.
The final outcome - life in prison plus seven years - ranks among the harshest sentences imposed in cases involving political violence in the United States in recent decades.
A Chilling Reminder
The attack attempt sent shockwaves through the 2024 campaign. A golf course, typically associated with privacy and security, suddenly became the setting for a near-assassination of a presidential candidate.
While the legal process has now concluded, the case remains a stark reminder of how fragile political security can be - and how a single, prevented shot can change the course of history.
In this case, that shot never came. And according to the court, the man who planned it will never walk free again.
