Eric Trump told Sirius XM’s Megyn Kelly on Monday that people should “entertain” the possibility that the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump could be an “inside job.”
Authorities confirmed the arrest of 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh for allegedly attempting to assassinate Trump at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida. On “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Eric Trump urged viewers to consider all scenarios, especially since Trump was not officially scheduled to be at the golf course at the time.
“Everybody had better entertain it. Everybody had better entertain everything, right? I never thought I’d say this again. I’m not that tinfoil hat guy; I’m actually a very sane human being, and I think there’s a lot of conspiracy theories out there that are absolutely insane. You better believe after, you know, twice in five weeks, you better start entertaining all of those scenarios, because something is very, very wrong, and it could have been very, very different,” he said.
Eric Trump questioned how Routh managed to cross multiple barriers, including a highway, while carrying a long gun without being noticed. “The guy literally brought a rifle across — Megyn, if you look at that, right? You’ve got a massive street that’s wide open. You’ve got probably 20 yards of beautiful, perfectly manicured grass. Then you get to a row of beautiful palm trees, right? Royal Palm trees. Then you have about another 20 yards of grass, and then you’ve got a big hedge line,” he explained.
“How did he get across all of that holding a long gun and no one saw this? There weren’t eyes on the street? It’s not like he’s creeping through a bunch of woods to try and get into a concealed spot,” he continued.
He emphasized that Routh crossed a “massive highway” in broad daylight with an AK-47, questioning how this went unnoticed. “I mean, he literally went across a massive highway in the middle of the day with a long gun. Something you can’t just throw in a backpack, right? Slither[ing] his way into the bushes adjacent to a golf hole that my father happened to be on at that time,” he said.
Eric Trump also speculated about Routh’s intentions, asking, “What happens if that guy was well camouflaged? What happens if that agent just didn’t happen to be there at the right time? What happens if that guy killed that agent and then used his scoped rifle to take somebody out from not a far distance?”
He reiterated the need for heightened security, stating, “We better really start locking down this perimeter, because something is awfully wrong. As I said three times in this interview now, they are trying to get him. When I said it six months ago, I believed in my heart that they would stop at nothing, but now the world knows they are trying to get him.”
While Trump was golfing on Sunday, Secret Service agents spotted a “rifle barrel sticking out of the fence” and “immediately engaged” the suspect. Routh fled the scene after being fired at but was later apprehended by local officials in Martin County, Florida.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw reported that Routh left behind “an AK-47 style rifle with a scope” and two backpacks containing ceramic tiles and a GoPro camera, which he planned to use for recording. The FBI is leading the investigation, and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced that the state will conduct its own inquiry.
