By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-04 13:22:40 | Updated at 2025-01-09 19:14:27
5 days ago
President-elect Donald Trump’s unhinged, would-be assassin Ryan Routh fancies himself a real-life George Bailey from “It’s a Wonderful Life,” is obsessed with Alexander Hamilton — and is offering to become a Hamas hostage.
Routh, 58 — currently locked up in a Miami federal prison while he awaits trial on the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate — included the revelations in a nutty jailhouse letter obtained by The Post.
“Will you go with me to Gaza and surrender to Hamas in exchange for a hostage life, please? Will you help me stop the killing of innocent children and families by offering yourself to restart the peace process and end this war?” begins the rambling, two-page, type missive.
Routh writes that he has been reading about the life of founding father Hamilton and “crying” over his death in a duel with former Vice President Aaron Burr.
He also compared himself to Bailey, the golden-hearted banker famously played by Jimmy Stewart in the 1946 Frank Capra Christmastime classic.
“I wish for a world where we always put in more than we take out, and do not care for money, or material goods, but do not wish for our neighbors to struggle around the globe,” he writes. “I feel as George Bailey, wondering if there is support and value in honor, dignity, righteousness, meek, modest, altruism, magnanimity, empathy, kindness, caring [and] sacrifice.”
The envelope showed Routh’s name, prison ID number and return address at the prison.
The letter was also signed by Routh’s daughter, Sara Routh, 31, an electrician living in Hawaii. Reached by phone, she confirmed the letter’s authenticity.
“I would say that I am willing to surrender in Gaza . . . merely to restart the peace conversation,” he writes, saying he and other good Samaritans taking the place of Israeli hostages would eliminate the need for Israel to continue its military campaign in the territory.
Routh was grabbed by federal authorities while hiding in shrubbery near the sixth hole at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, FL on Sept. 15. A semiautomatic rifle with a scope attached and an extended magazine was found nearby.
Routh was able to get within 300 to 500 yards of the president before being neutralized.
In the letter, Routh says he had “unlimited time and funds to travel to D.C. Qatar, Gaza, or anywhere else to deliver the new hostages” — an odd claim given the fact he is likely to be behind bars for awhile.
Routh expresses positive feelings toward Hamas-supporting university students who held disruptive and frequently violent campus demonstrations after the Oct. 7 massacre.
“It was extremely sad when our US leaders crushed the tent cities created by the University students for Gaza,” Routh says, urging students to reestablish encampments at the “edge of Gaza.”
His daughter told The Post, “I have tried to push it but nobody has responded and I haven’t gotten much of anything. I have tried to reach out to the ministry of foreign affairs in Qatar and Egypt and I have not gotten much.”
Sara is also running @GazaHostageSwap, an account dedicated to promoting the effort on X. It has four followers.
Sara declined to discuss her father’s criminal case.
As he has in past jailhouse letters, Ryan Routh rages about Trump, saying he had “no moral compass.”
Routh has a history of supporting progressive causes online and has made 19 donations to Democratic candidates since 2019.
Trump survived an earlier assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
