Just like at this year’s Oscars, there was a major non-entertainment story breaking alongside an awards show last night. While many people were focused on the Emmys, an absolutely bonkers political story was unfolding. First of all, Sunday was an awful day for Republicans. JD Vance made an ass out of himself on the Sunday morning shows, then Donald Trump followed that up by declaring “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” on Truth Social, his Nazi social media platform. Hours later, Secret Service agents detailed to Trump confronted a would-be assassin at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club.

The F.B.I. said it was investigating “what appears to be an attempted assassination” of former President Donald J. Trump after the Secret Service fired on an armed man at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday, just over two months after he was wounded during an attempt on his life.

Mr. Trump was on the course, a few hundred yards away, when Secret Service personnel spotted a person concealed in the bushes and opened fire, law enforcement officials said at a briefing. The suspect fled the scene in a vehicle and was taken into custody during a traffic stop, and a rifle with a scope was recovered from the bushes, along with a camera and two backpacks. It was not yet clear whether the suspect had fired any shots, according to the Secret Service.

A U.S. law enforcement official identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. Mr. Routh was interviewed by The New York Times in 2023 for an article about Americans volunteering to aid the war effort in Ukraine. Mr. Routh, who had no military experience, said he had traveled there after Russia’s invasion in 2022 to recruit Afghan soldiers for the fight. He told The Times he once visited Washington to meet with politicians to strengthen support for Ukraine. “I’m just a U.S. citizen that’s helping out,” he said.

[From The NY Times]

People quickly found Routh’s social media and went through all of his old Twitter posts. It was a portrait of a former MAGA Republican – he supported Trump in 2016, then he switched his allegiance to Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, and he seemingly did not want Trump to be the Republican nominee. Journalists were in the process of looking through his Twitter account when Twitter’s unhinged owner Elon Musk deleted the account. Not only that, Musk questioned why Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were not being similarly targeted. That’s the kind of question which SHOULD lead to the Secret Service crawling up Elon Musk’s ass for years. Musk ended up deleting the post… but only after millions of people saw it. Then he followed up with some “it was just jokes” tweets.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.