Social media posts connected Ryan Routh with LGBTQ+ community. That doesn’t align with what we know

Following an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, focus quickly turned to the suspect’s identity and motives. 

Authorities arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, soon after the Sept. 15 incident, saying they found evidence he pointed a rifle through the tree line outside of Trump’s West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course, where Trump was golfing with a friend.

On X, users shared an image of an Instagram account they said belongs to Routh. It included Routh’s image along with the username @ryan_wesleyrouth. "Proud dad," the bio said. "Proud LGBTQ+ member. Proud Dem. Don’t follow if you’re a maga!"

Other social media users spread the claim, saying it was evidence that Routh was a liberal with posts such as, "Ryan Wesley Routh is an antifa, pro-palestinian, Dem, LGBTQ+," and "President Trump’s assassin is a proud Democrat and a proud peaceful LGBTQ activist!"

These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

More information is likely to surface as the investigation into Routh and his activities progresses. But we found no evidence this account, with its hat tip to LGBTQ+ advocacy, was legitimate.

The Instagram account no longer exists. But an archived version of the profile showed it was active as of 7 p.m. ET Sept. 15, a little more than an hour after unconfirmed reports started surfacing on social media identifying Routh as the suspect. The archived profile showed the account had 15 posts and 23 followers.

Meta did not respond to our question about whether the account was Routh’s. But there are signs that he didn’t author the descriptors in his bio. The biggest one: We found no other statements in his confirmed public social media presence or in his self-published book that showed he considered himself LGBTQ+.

In archives of his now-deleted X profile, Routh’s bio reads: "I feel lucky to have been born in America, with freedom and opportunity and hope that I do not waste such a valuable thing; to do more and take less."

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A review of his X posts — and a review of news coverage of his X posts — also found no mention of LGBTQ+ identity. We found a Facebook page that was in his name before Meta removed the profile, but the public-facing posts and pictures did not show a bio or references to LGBTQ+ issues or identity. 

We searched Routh’s 2023 self-published book, "Ukraine’s Unwinnable War," for LGBTQ+-related words and phrases and found only one mention, in a hard-to-decipher passage in which he discussed trying to discern people’s "ulterior motives," but he wasn’t describing himself with this terminology.

It read: "Honestly my life has become more complex with the more open gay population and I find myself needing to clarify at the onset of working the males as to whether they are straight or gay so that I understand motivations and ‘level of service’. Regretfully on occasion I may have found myself in awkward situations."

Although the FBI declined to answer our questions about whether Routh identified himself as  LGBTQ+, neither investigators’ public statements nor any news coverage so far have described him as such.

Immediately after reports surfaced Routh as the possible suspect, PolitiFact reporters searched for social media accounts under his name and found only a Facebook and X account. Our reporters found no account matching this name.

There are no archived versions of an Instagram account by this name before Sept. 15 and the screenshot being shared has the label "New" under the profile photo indicating it was recently created.

Although much news coverage of Routh included coverage of his posts on X, detailed news reports from several major news outlets do not mention an Instagram account or any connection to the LGBTQ+ community. 

As far as him declaring himself a "Proud Dem," as the profile also says, we found Routh’s political affiliation is hard to pin down. His voter registration and social media posts offered a mixed picture of his political beliefs. Routh described himself as a Trump supporter-turned-Trump critic but his voter registration history showed no clear consistent support of either party. He was once a registered Democrat, but his voter registration in North Carolina listed him as "unaffiliated" for more than two decades. And although he was also registered to vote in Hawaii, that state does not include party affiliation as part of its voter registration. Routh was most vocal online about his support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. 

In recent years, claims that shooters or attempted shooters are transgender or LGBTQ+ have become a predictable piece of misinformation after violent attacks. Fake profiles with they/them pronouns, pride flags, or pro-LGBTQ+ messages are frequently circulated immediately after violent events when information about the perpetrator is scarce.

But evidence does not support the larger narrative that LGBTQ+ ideology is sparking violent extremism.

Social media users shared images of a pro-LGBTQ+ Instagram profile they claimed to belong to Routh, the suspect in the apparent assassination attempt against Trump.

The account has since been deleted, but PolitiFact’s reporting does not support its authenticity.

Routh’s social media accounts on Facebook and X  nor his self-published book mentioned LGBTQ+ identity. And although there has been exhaustive reporting on Routh’s history and biography since the West Palm Beach incident, we found no evidence in interviews to support this claim.

We rate the claim that Routh's Instagram bio said he is a "proud LGBTQ+ member" False.