Man who tried to shoot Trump at Florida golf course gets life in prison

A man convicted of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced Wednesday (February 4, 2026) to life in prison after a federal prosecutor said his crime was unacceptable “in this country or anywhere.”

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts.

“American democracy does not work when individuals take it into their own hands to eliminate candidates. That’s what this individual tried to do,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Shipley told the judge.

Defense attorney Martin L. Roth argued that “at the moment of truth, he chose not to pull the trigger.”

The judge pushed back, noting Routh’s history of arrests, to which Mr. Roth said, “He’s a complex person, I’ll give the court that, but he has a very good core.”

Routh then read from a rambling, 20-page statement. Ms. Cannon broke in, said none of what he was saying was relevant and gave him five more minutes to talk.

“I did everything I could and lived a good life,” Routh said, before the judge cut him off.

“Your plot to kill was deliberate and evil,” she said. “You are not a peaceful man. You are not a good man.”

She then issued his sentence: Life without parole, plus seven years on a gun charge. His sentences for his other three crimes will run concurrently.

In a statement on the social platform X, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked prosecutors for ensuring that Routh “will never walk free again.”

“Ryan Routh’s heinous attempted assassination of President Trump was not only an attack on our President — it was a direct assault against our entire democratic system,” Mr. Bondi said.

Routh’s sentencing was initially scheduled for December. However, Ms. Cannon agreed to move it back after Routh decided to use an attorney during the sentencing phase, rather than representing himself as he had for most of the trial.

Routh was convicted of trying to assassinate a major presidential candidate, using a firearm in furtherance of a crime, assaulting a federal officer, possessing a firearm as a felon and using a gun with a defaced serial number.

“Routh remains unrepentant for his crimes, never apologised for the lives he put at risk, and his life demonstrates near-total disregard for law,” prosecutors said in their sentencing memo.

His defense attorney had asked for 20 years plus the mandatory seven for the gun conviction.

“The defendant is two weeks short of being sixty years old,” Mr. Roth wrote in a filing. “A just punishment would provide a sentence long enough to impose sufficient but not excessive punishment, and to allow the defendant to experience freedom again as opposed to dying in prison.”

Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Mr. Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the Republican presidential candidate played golf on September 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.

At trial, a Secret Service agent helping protect Mr. Trump on the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Mr. Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and run away without firing a shot.

In the motion requesting an attorney, Routh offered to trade his life in a prisoner swap with people unjustly held in other countries and said an offer still stood for Mr. Trump to “take out his frustrations on my face.”

“Just a quarter of an inch further back and we all would not have to deal with all of this mess,” Routh wrote. He added, “but I always fail at everything (par for the course).”