Both the New York Times and Semafor quoted Routh in 2023, and the reporters in question are each now sharing more information about why. Writing in the Times, Thomas Gibbons-Neff said: “I was put in touch with Mr. Routh through an old colleague and friend from Kabul, Najim Rahim. Through the strange nexus of combatants as one war ended and another began, he had learned of Mr. Routh from a source of his in Iran, a former Afghan special operations soldier who was trying to get out of Iran and fight in Ukraine.” To be clear, Gibbons-Neff is saying his own source knew of Routh through a contact in Iran.

“Mr. Routh, who had spent some time in Ukraine trying to raise support for the war, was seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban,” the story continued. “And so the former Afghan soldier reckoned Mr. Routh could get him to the Ukrainian front.” What’s more, Routh reportedly “talked of buying off corrupt officials, forging passports and doing whatever it took to get his Afghan cadre to Ukraine, but he had no real way to accomplish his goals”.

Former Semafor reporter Tanya Lukyanova, who now works for The Free Press, said Routh told her that “Ukraine is very often hard to work with. Many foreign soldiers leave after a week in Ukraine or must move from unit to unit to find a place they are respected and appreciated.” Lukyanova claimed that Routh appeared back then as “just a harmless loon”.

Routh appears to have authored a self-published book in which he wrote to Iran: “You are free to assassinate Trump.” Just three weeks ago, Susan Crabtree — perhaps the best journalist on the Secret Service beat in America — reported: “Some U.S. national security officials are convinced that agencies devoted to protecting the security of presidents, former presidents, presidential candidates, and their families, as well as current and former State Department secretaries, have been compromised by Iranian intelligence assets,” according to “three knowledgeable sources”.

It’s likely that Routh is a mentally unstable person who took it upon himself to carry out wild plots that might help Ukraine or Taiwan, and then set out to assassinate Trump. His apparent connections to a hostile foreign power, however, warrant close scrutiny in the days ahead. It is worth remembering that after the failed attempt on Trump’s life in July, sources claimed “U.S. authorities” knew of an Iranian plot to kill the Republican nominee.

It’s not impossible that Iran saw in Routh, who was publicly and privately seeking to make contact with foreign governments, an easy vessel for its plan. It seems unlikely and may be entirely false. But it’s a question lawmakers will surely raise in the days ahead: was the US Government aware a convicted felon was flying to Ukraine and Taiwan, apparently making contact with people in Iran (per the Times), and publishing assassination fantasies on Amazon? Did he successfully make serious connect with any foreign governments?

Shawn VanDiver, founder of the AfghanEvac Coalition, posted on X to emphasise that Routh was known but dismissed as a crank. “When this guy’s idiotic plan made it to [AfghanEvac] our response was strong. My guidance was to stay the fuck away from him. That we weren’t going to ask Afghans to go fight this war. They’ve already done enough and have earned their spot in our country,” wrote VanDiver. 

I asked Alex Plitsas, a veteran working in the Afghan Evacuation and Ukraine spaces who had come across Routh’s tweets in the past, what he made of Trump’s would-be assassin. “There are people who float crazy and unrealistic ideas because they have no experience, but they’re trying to be helpful,” Plitsas told me. “Other times some of them have mental health issues. This gentleman had been a known entity online and everyone just kind of kept their distance. He didn’t seem dangerous and was not unique.”

Plitsas described Routh’s plan as “a cross between The Bourne Identity in his mind and The Emperor‘s New Clothes in reality, where he’s the only one who didn’t realise what he was proposing was batshit crazy and unachievable”.

It’s not hard to see why the community in which VanDiver and Plitsas work easily dismissed Routh. There are many questions yet to be answered about whether foreign governments discarded him quite as readily, even if those contacts ultimately amounted to nothing of great significance.

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Emily Jashinsky is UnHerd‘s Washington D.C. Correspondent.

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