Trump did not have any events listed on his public schedule, while his most recent campaign stops had taken place in Nevada.
How the Republican candidate’s would-be assassin worked out where he would be is the “million-dollar question”, according to Will Snyder, the Florida sheriff whose officers arrested Routh on Sunday.
“It’s hard for me to imagine how he got within rifle range of president Trump,” he told Fox News.
What was the gunman’s motivation?
Routh had voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, yet eight years later he is suspected of making an attempt on the former president’s life.
He became disillusioned with the Republican, referring to him in a 2023 self-published book as “buffoon”, a “fool” and “brainless”. But it is unclear why he would apparently turn on him so violently, or what he believed he might accomplish by shooting him.
While Right-wing commentators have claimed Routh is a “radical leftist”, his politics appear to be mudded.