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Alleged Trump Gunman Was My Hawaii Pickleball Partner

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Alleged Trump Gunman Was My Hawaii Pickleball Partner


Before Ryan Wesley Routh allegedly became the second man to try and kill Donald Trump in as many months, he was something else entirely: A fiend on the pickleball court.

“He was a reasonably good player. He played really hard,” Bryant Schultz told The Daily Beast in a phone interview. “He was the only one out at the courts who would dive for the ball. Most pickleball players do not dive to make a shot.”

Schultz, 62, of Kaneohe, Oahu, played frequently with Routh, 58, over a period of several years as part of a loose coalition of residents who showed up at Swanzy Beach Park three mornings a week to get their pickleball on.

Both on and off the court, Routh was “always personable and good-natured,” Schultz said, as well as chatty, on friendly terms with many of the park’s regulars. Hard on himself when he made mistakes, he never chastised his partners. “Except for his own errors, he was the most mild-mannered player out there.”

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Routh first appeared at the park after the worst of the pandemic had passed, Schultz recalled. “He never appeared to have a bunch of money,” he said. “He was often borrowing paddles. For quite a while, he played with a really chewed-up wooden paddle—because of his dive, you know.”

During a federal court appearance on Monday, Routh was charged with two firearm possession counts. He told the court that he had “zero funds” in savings and had no assets beyond two trucks in Hawaii, according to CNN.

It wasn’t totally clear to his teammates what Routh did for a living. Schultz heard that he “worked on building tiny houses” and would do odd-job repairs around the community, including on a local pier. “He wasn’t paid or contracted,” as far as Schultz knew, he said. “He just went out and made the surface safe for people to walk on.”

On his LinkedIn page, which remained live on Monday, Routh advertised his work with a company called Camp Box Honolulu, which he wrote builds storage units and “very simple housing structures for the less fortunate.” In 2019, a year after Routh moved to Oahu, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that he’d pledged to build tiny homes for Kalaeloa’s homeless community.

One thing Routh didn’t appear to be—at least on the pickleball court—was political.

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“I can’t recall him ever talking politics,” Schultz said. He’d had no idea Routh had self-published a 291-page book last year in which he called for Trump’s assassination, criticizing the former president for his 2018 withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. (Authorities have not yet laid out a possible motive in Sunday’s assassination attempt.)

In a section apparently directed at Iran’s government, Routh wrote, “You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment and the dismantling of the deal,” according to The Wall Street Journal. “No one here in the US seems to have the balls to put natural selection to work or even unnatural selection.”

Routh has a scattered political history tracing back to his time in his native North Carolina, where he registered as an “unaffiliated” voter in 2012. In his book, he groused that he was “so tired of people asking me if I am a Democrat or Republican as I refuse to be put in a category and I must always answer independent.”

On social media, he had professed support for Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, President Joe Biden, and Trump, whom he disavowed in mid-2020.

“I and the world hoped that president Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we all were greatly disappointment and it seems you are getting worse and devolving…” he tweeted that June. “I will be glad when you gone.”

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Schultz and his fellow picklers were aware, however, that Routh left Hawaii for Ukraine shortly after the Russian invasion, intent on fighting for Kyiv.

With no military experience and a lengthy criminal record, however, Routh was rebuffed by the Ukrainian defense ministry, he told Newsweek Romania in an article recently unearthed by CBS News.

“My initial goal was to come fight… but I’m 56, so initially they were like, I have no military experience, so they were like, you’re not an ideal candidate,” he told the magazine. “So they said, not right this minute. So plan B was to come here to Kyiv and promote getting more people here.”

Routh spent some time in the city trying to act as an informal recruiter for Ukraine’s International Legion, and spoke to both The New York Times and Semafor last year about his efforts. But several foreign soldiers involved with the legion told Slate on Sunday night that Routh “was not associated with them, recruited nobody to the cause, and did little during his time in Ukraine aside from garner publicity for himself.”

In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for the legion said, “We would like to clarify that Ryan Wesley Routh has never been part of, associated with, or linked to the International Legion in any capacity. Any claims or suggestions indicating otherwise are entirely inaccurate.”

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After failing in his recruitment efforts, Routh eventually made his way back to Hawaii, where he took up pickleball again. The last time Schultz saw him was around four or five weeks before the assassination attempt, he said. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary; it was just another day on the court.



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Flights disrupted at Hawaii airports due to severe weather, visibility issues

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Flights disrupted at Hawaii airports due to severe weather, visibility issues


HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Travelers at Hawaii airports experienced delays and cancellations due to severe weather Thursday.

Hawaii News Now issued a First Alert Weather Day from Wednesday night through Friday morning as a strong winter storm moves through Hawaii.

A ground stop was issued for interisland flights statewide that essentially kept planes from taking off or landing for about an hour.

The ground stop continued at Daniel K. International Airport in Honolulu, which was ongoing as of 3:30 p.m., and applied to all interisland as well as inbound flights.

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“Grounding was because of visibility,” said Hawaii Department of Transportation Director Ed Sniffen. “It was very difficult for for pilots to come into or leave Honolulu Airport because of the visibility due to the storm.”

Incoming transpacific flights were diverted to other airports, officials said.

This meant delays for travelers, some of whom had been waiting for hours to get to their intended destinations.

“Based on the satellites I was watching, it looked like we could actually maybe miss the the weather and get home before it hit too hard, but when we were on our way here, I could tell that there might be possibilities of cancellations,” said Pahoa resident Brittany Hutchins.

“Hopefully we make it to Kauai on time, because we have a rental car, hotels all lined up, so it would be a little inconvenient if things didn’t work out, but you know as long as it’s safe,” said Ninglu Weng, a visitor from Winnipeg, Canada.

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Transportation officials say they’re coordinating with airlines on flight schedules to make sure things run as smoothly as possible.

They also say that travelers should be in touch with their airline for more information.

Hawaiian Airlines said travel waivers are available for guests traveling to/from Honolulu (HNL), Lihue (LIH), Hilo (ITO), Kona (KOA), and Kahului (OGG) between Wednesday and Friday due to the inclement weather.

Officials also said a power spike at Honolulu’s airport triggered fire alarms and blew out some circuits that needed to be reset.

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Immigration enforcement measures draw support – West Hawaii Today

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Immigration enforcement measures draw support – West Hawaii Today






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HOUR-BY-HOUR: When and where are impacts expected from the approaching winter storm?

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HOUR-BY-HOUR: When and where are impacts expected from the approaching winter storm?


HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A strong storm is expected to impact the entire state of Hawaii Wednesday night through Friday, bringing heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, and strong winds.

RELATED POST: Alerts issued for flash flooding, damaging winds from approaching storm system

Note this forecast is subject to change. Heavy rain and other impacts can happen at any time over the next several days.

Wednesday night: Scattered showers and a few isolated thunderstorms are expected late Wednesday night ahead of the front. The bulk of the activity will come on Thursday and Friday, however.

Thursday at midnight: Heavy rain will begin to increase after midnight. Scattered thunderstorms will start to develop ahead of the approaching front. These showers will be hit or miss. They will impact some, but not all.

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Thursday morning: During the commute tomorrow, heavy rainfall is expected to develop over the islands. Torrential rainfall will be likely in mauka areas, impacting the morning drive through the Koolau.

Thursday at midday: Thunderstorms will continue to develop throughout the afternoon. Scattered thunderstorms are still impacting the state at this time.

Thursday evening.: Heavy rainfall is expected across most of the state into the evening as the low-pressure system continues to move north of the state. The associated cold front will start to push towards the southeast during the late afternoon and evening.

Friday morning: There will be more impacts over Maui County and Hawaii Island, and conditions will dry out through Friday evening and Saturday.

Friday afternoon: Heavy rain will be confined to the eastern half of the state. Dry and comfortable air will move in behind the cold front. Nice, sunny weather is expected on Saturday and Sunday.

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Tune in to Hawaii News Now and make sure you download the HNN news and weather apps for the latest updates.

Download HNN’s weather app for everything you need to plan your day.(Hawaii News Now)



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