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NEW YORK - The man arrested after apparently plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course on Sept 15 was listed as the author of a rambling, self-aggrandising, self-published 2023 book in which he appears to tell Iran – and perhaps readers – that it was “free to assassinate Trump.” The book credited to the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh – “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War” – aligns closely with reflecting his desire to fight and possibly die for Ukraine, and his searing hatred for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many of the book’s 291 pages contain graphic and bloody images of soldiers and civilians from conflicts around the world. The prose is written by someone who seems to fashion himself an expert on world events, and not as a peripatetic pro-Ukraine activist and building contractor with a criminal record. Routh, 58, took a particularly dim view of Trump, referring to him as a “fool,” an “idiot” and a “buffoon,” while comparing him unfavourably to a generation of despotic world leaders that included Mr Putin and Mr Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil. “Democracy has dissolved quickly under our watch,” Routh wrote, describing t as a catastrophe “perpetrated by Donald Trump and his undemocratic posse.” In one convoluted passage, Routh vented his anger at Trump’s dismantling of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. After writing “Iran, I apologise,” Routh added, “you are free to assassinate Trump” – although he moves freely in the book between addressing his general readers and specific subjects. Trump and his allies have long warned about the threat posed by Iran to the former president’s personal safety. In August, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man who had recently visited Iran with trying to hire a hit man to assassinate political figures in the US. Investigators believe that those potential targets likely included Trump. But at other points, he suggests that he did not always feel so negatively about Trump – and goes on to say that readers should also feel free to kill him for some of his own prior positions. Routh’s connection to the book was first reported by The Associated Press. In the book, Routh is critical of US President Joe Biden’s , though he praises “frail, old Biden” for having the “backbone” to support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. His most vitriolic language is directed at Mr Putin. In Chapter 18 – titled “Why has Putin not been assassinated?” – he writes, “We all ponder as to why our great minds did not simply kill Hitler early on, and now why have we not taken steps to kill Putin at all costs.” Routh does not appear to deplore all autocrats equally. He offers a relatively positive assessment of Mr Kim Jong Un of North Korea, describing him as reasonable, and a Western-educated leader who can be swayed with diplomacy and politesse. And Routh viewed himself as just the man who could do it. “I will gladly go many months or years to build a relationship with North Korea,” he wrote. “If an NBA basketball star like Dennis Rodman can make a peaceful friendship with Kim then perhaps he and I should be ambassadors to North Korea.” NYTIMES