Closing arguments, deliberations for Ryan Routh, the alleged attempted assassin of Trump

The jurors of Fort Pierce, Florida, began the deliberations Tuesday in the federal criminal trial of Ryan Routh, the man accused of having tried to assassinate the candidate of the time, Donald Trump, to his golf course of Palm Beach last year.

Roth, 59, faces five federal accusations, in particular by trying to assassinate a large presidential candidate, by assaulting a federal officer and in several infractions of firearms. He pleaded not guilty of all accusations. If he is found guilty, he could risk in life to life.

Prosecutors used their closing arguments on Tuesday to underline both the digital and medico-legal evidence presented at the trial and what they described as a clear intention of Routh: killing Trump.

“It was not an advertisement,” American deputy prosecutor Christopher Browne told the jury. “The evidence showed one thing and only one thing – the accused wanted Donald Trump to have died,” said Browne, adding that the worst was that he “fled” with it.

Browne told the jurors that Routh had “excessively” hunted up the locations and where Trump’s weeks were in the weeks preceding the alleged assassination attempt on September 15, 2024.

He noted that Routh would have traveled 17 times to extend the Trump International Golf Club to West Palm Beach. These were “recognition” missions, said Browne.

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A sketch representing legal proceedings during the trial of Ryan Routh in Fort Pierce, Florida, September 19, 2025. Ryan Routh was accused of an assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in his West Palm Beach golf club in 2024. (Lothar Speer)

Browne reminded the jurors that there were 19 laps found in the magazine of the SKS rifle recovered on the scene, including one in the room.

There is “no doubt, no reasonable doubt, without a doubt that it was the man,” said Browne, pointing Roth “, who was hiding” in the nest of the sniper.

Browne told the jurors that his motivations were also clear, pointing words from a rap song that Routh wrote in killing Trump with an elite shooting rifle – the one he wrote after being caught and arrested by the FBI.

“It is not in any case where the accused writes his intention on a piece of paper,” said Browne.

The accusation spent most of his time on Tuesday focus on the chief of one of the five federal criminal charges with which Roth is confronted: trying to assassinate a great presidential candidate.

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The law enforcement officials work on the crime scene outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, September 16, 2024, following the assassination of the candidate of the time, Donald Trump. (Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Images)

The contrast between the defense of Routh and the federal prosecutors is a dynamic which was Stark throughout the trial.

Federal prosecutors spent about two weeks for walking jurors through hundreds of exhibitions and testimonies from 38 witnesses to assert their file against Routh.

Prosecutors have methodically built their case with mobile phone data placing Routh at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, where they declared that they had created a “sniper nest” near the sixth hole. They also introduced bank files, purchases of burner phones and DNA evidence binding it to the SKS rifle recovered on the scene.

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A sketch representing legal proceedings during the Ryan Routh trial in Fort Pierce, Florida, September 15, 2025. Ryan Routh is accused of an assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in his West Palm Beach golf club in 2024. (Lothar Speer)

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The American district judge Aileen Cannon has become more and more frustrated by Roth’s decision to represent himself without law degree or formal training. Before postponing on Monday, she warned it that any argument must be “reasonably linked to the proofs admitted”.

Routh confirmed that he had understood and told Cannon that he would not testify on his own name, despite his repeated offers so that he was reconsidering and consulting with the watch lawyer.

Samantha Daigle and Jennifer Johnson by Fox News contributed to this report.