Did Ryan Routh, the suspect in the apparent attempted assassination of Donald Trump in September 2024, make an appearance in a BlackRock advertisement? No, that's not true: A company spokesperson told Lead Stories that Routh had not "appeared in any BlackRock ads." The post making the claim uses a clip that does briefly show a man who appears to be Routh, but the clip is not related to BlackRock. It is from a pro-Ukraine rally in 2022.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter, on September 16, 2024. The post's caption said:
🚨🇺🇸 Absolutely No Bloody Way
The latest Trump would be assassin - Ryan Routh ALSO appeared in a Blackrock Commerical just like Thomas Crooks.
That means BOTH featured in Global Wealth management firm's Commercial.
THESE ARENT COINCIDIENCES.
They love their symbolism.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Sep 17 19:29:09 2024 UTC)
The post provided nothing to support its statement that Routh was once in an ad for BlackRock.
The video
Routh's image appears in an eight-second clip in the social media post. He is wearing a blue-collared shirt and a red, white and blue scarf. The same footage is part of a longer video from a rally held in Kyiv, Ukraine, published on X on May 1, 2022, a few months after Russia's invasion on February 24, 2022.
In the video (archived here), Routh appears at the 1:50 mark of the 2:20-minute clip. The video's caption says:
This video is a message to the world from the Mariupol defenders.They are grateful for our support and ask us to keep on fighting.'Thank you to everyone who supports the Defenders of Mariupol and raises the issue of Mariupol at the international level
Mariupol is🇺🇦'
#savemariupol
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Sep 17 20:57:59 2024 UTC)
The Save Azov X account (archived here) was a pitch, asking the world to support the Ukrainian National Guard's Azov Brigade, which was under intense Russian attack in Mariupol at the time. Routh was a strong supporter of the unit, NPR (archived here) reported.
BlackRock
A BlackRock spokesperson called the assertion that Routh appeared in a company commercial "completely false." In a September 17, 2024, email to Lead Stories, they said:
Ryan Routh has never been an employee of BlackRock nor has he appeared in any BlackRock ads. The video circulating on social media has been manipulated to falsely link Routh to BlackRock.
The social media post was an apparent attempt to tie Routh to the investment firm that was already linked to Thomas Crooks, the first would-be assassin of Donald Trump who fired on him at a rally in July 2024. Crooks, who appeared in the background of a 2022 ad for BlackRock that was filmed at his high school, was not paid, nor hired by the company, according to a CBS News report (archived here).
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Other fact check agencies have also reviewed this claim, including AFP Fact Check, VERIFY, Snopes and US
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Ryan Routh can be found here.
