Disturbing New Details About Would-Be Trump Assassin, Coal EOs, Hegseth Warns China: AM Update 4/9

Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly.
It's Wednesday, April 9th, 2025, and this is your AM Update. New details on the alleged would-be Trump assassins plans, including plans to purchase a rocket launcher from Ukraine.
Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure, and powerful form of energy. President Trump announcing a new slate of executive orders to boost the coal industry.
The Supreme Court sides with the Trump administration for the third time in a week. China did not build this canal.
China does not operate this canal. And China will not weaponize this canal.
And Defense Secretary Hegseth putting China on notice with a warning about who controls the Panama Canal. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.
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That's weheartnutrition.com, code Megan. Federal prosecutors writing in a court filing this week that alleged would-be Trump assassin Ryan Wesley Ruth attempted to purchase a rocket launcher from Ukraine in the weeks leading up to the planned attack.
The 58-year-old suspect, who was caught lying in wait for Trump at one of his Florida golf courses, previously wrote to a Ukrainian contact, quote, send me an RPG, rocket-propelled, or stinger, and I will see what we can do. Trump is not good for Ukraine.
Mr. Ruth, inquiring about purchase options and shipping, writing, quote, going to the local store for such an item is impossible.
However, you are at war, so those items lost and destroyed daily. One missing would not be noticed.
The filing, alleges Mr. Ruth, spent considerable time researching then-candidate Trump's movements, the Trump golf course, and possible escape routes.
The suspect also sent a picture to the Ukrainian contact, whose identity and position remain unknown, of Trump Force One writing Trump's plane. He gets on and off daily.
Prosecutors say Mr. Ruth

illegally purchased an SKS rifle setting up a sniper hideout near Trump International Golf Club

in West Palm Beach in the early morning hours of September 15th. Mr.
Trump set to play a round

later that day. In the early afternoon, Secret Service agents spotting the barrel of a rifle

poking out of the bushes along the course. Agents opening fire, the suspect escaping through the

Thank you. In the early afternoon, Secret Service agents spotting the barrel of a rifle poking out of the bushes along the course.
Agents opening fire, the suspect escaping through the trees. Approximately 40 minutes later, authorities stopping Mr.
Ruth on the interstate. Police recovering handwritten notes with dates of venues where Mr.
Trump had appeared or was scheduled to appear, two cell phones, and a handwritten letter titled Dear World, stating, quote, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I am so sorry I failed you. Investigators also collecting a trove of digital evidence from Mr.
Ruth's Hawaii home, 18 phones, three computers, three tablets, 3,000 photos, financial records, social media records too. President Trump last week suggesting he may release the files on Mr.
Ruth. And a couple of them had some strange markings on them.
So yeah, I want to find out and I would be willing to release it. I mean, maybe there's a reason that we shouldn't.
So I don't want to get too far ahead of my skis, but yeah, I wouldn't be very willing to release that.

Prosecutors say Mr. Ruth was also in contact with a man in Mexico attempting to coordinate his post-assassination escape.
Charges against Mr. Ruth include the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition,

and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Mr.
Ruth pleading not guilty to all charges. Attorneys for Mr.
Ruth attempting to exclude an eyewitness account from his upcoming trial. The witness only identified as TCM, saying on the day of the planned attack, he saw a man jump out of the bushes and flee into a black Nissan car.
Defense attorneys writing in a Monday filing, the identification procedures used to implicate Mr. Ruth in this case were impermissibly suggestive.
Mr. Ruth's trial is set to begin this December.
He faces life in prison if convicted.

President Trump on Tuesday signing executive orders aimed at boosting coal industry production.

Coal miners wearing hard hats and reflective gear flanking President Trump in the White House for the announcement. For years, people would just bemoan this industry and decimate the industry for absolutely no reason, because with modern technology and all of the other things that we do, it's one of the great, great forms of energy.
Joe Biden and congressional Democrats tried to abolish the American coal industry. They did everything in their power, shutting down dozens of coal plants,

banning coal leases on federal lands and putting thousands and thousands of coal miners out of work. The Democrats' Green News scam killed jobs and sent prices soaring here in America.
But meanwhile, China opened two coal plants every single week. The executive orders instruct the Interior Department to resume coal leasing on millions of acres of public lands, lift burdensome Biden-era policies, promote grid reliability, and direct the DOJ to pursue cases against left-wing states with policies against coal.
Since January, various agencies and departments making efforts to unlock coal mining across the U.S. The EPA reducing restrictions on plant emissions, Interior approving the expansion of a Montana coal mine, and President Trump citing the rise of AI, creating an urgent need for more energy production.
A 2024 study by the Energy Department concluding the U.S. needs to double the size of the grid in the next couple of decades.
President Trump aiming to meet the need in part by spurring more coal production. I'm also directing Secretary Wright to use billions of dollars in federal funding to invest in the next generation of coal technology, which is an amazing technology in terms of getting the full potential of coal and also doing it a very clean environmental way.
Pound for pound, coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure, and powerful form of energy. It's cheap, incredibly efficient, high density, and it's almost indestructible.
Most importantly, we have more of it here in America than anywhere else on Earth. Coal-powered energy became a political football over the last decade.
In January 2016, President Obama issuing a moratorium on federal coal leases on public lands. Hillary Clinton made clear she wanted to kill the coal industry.
President Trump reversing the Obama order in 2017, only to see it reimposed by the Biden administration.

President Trump announcing the administration is working to make the latest orders permanent.

We're going to give a guarantee that the business will not be terminated by the ups and downs of

the world of politics. So should somebody come in to this very important office and say, oh, well, you spent hundreds of millions of dollars and you guys have given up your life because you want to be in coal.
And then all of a sudden you don't have a life anymore because it's what you know the best. That's not going to happen.
We're going to give a guarantee that it's not going to happen so that if somebody comes in, they cannot change it at a whim. They cannot just get to go.
They're going to have to go through hell to close you up. These latest orders, part of a broader push to dramatically refocus the federal government via executive authority.
CNN analyst Harry Enten breaking it down. I think there was this concern among some folks that Donald Trump would come in for a second term and kind of be a lame duck.
He ain't no lame duck. If anything, he's a soaring eagle.
What am I talking about here? Let's talk about Trump executive orders in 2025. He's already signed 111 so far.
That is the most at this point in a presidency in at least 100 years. In Trump's approach to presidential power, I think the American people recognize what he's doing here is completely different.
We're talking, get this, 86% of the American public believes that Trump's approach to presidential power is completely different from past presidents compared to only 14% who believe it is in line with precedent. And we're talking about at least 79% of Democrats, independents, and Republicans.
Coming up, the Supreme Court backing the Trump administration for the third time in a week. And Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth warns China they have no claim to the Panama Canal.
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The Supreme Court once again backing the Trump administration this week. On Tuesday, the court blocking a lower court order demanding that the Trump administration rehire thousands of provisional federal employees let go in mass layoffs.
The thinking had been they're provisional and would be easier to fire. On March 13th, Clinton appointed District Court Judge William Alsup in San Francisco, ordering the administration to reinstate the provisional employees, approximately 16,000 of them across six agencies, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury, and the VA.
In a 7-2 decision, the court ruling the organization's bringing the case lacked standing as individual workers who had been fired were not involved in the suit at all. The unsigned order leaving the door open for individual employees to commence their own challenges under

the Administrative Procedure Act. The justices yet to weigh in on a similar injunction from an Obama-appointed judge out of Maryland.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday visiting Panama in an effort to curb Chinese influence on the highly strategic waterway. China did not build this canal.
China does not operate this canal. And China will not weaponize this canal.
Together with Panama in the lead, we will keep the canal secure and available for all nations through the deterrent power of the strongest, most effective, and most lethal fighting force in the world. We will do this in partnership with Panama.
Together, we will take back the Panama Canal from China's influence. And we will do this along with other capable, like-minded allies and partners.
This is what peace through

strength looks like. The visit on the heels of two major developments in the region.
In February,

Panama announcing an early departure from the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure

agreement designed to force developing nations into dependence on China. In March, a Hong Kong

company operating two ports on either side of the canal announcing a sale to American company

Thank you. into dependence on China.
In March, a Hong Kong company operating two ports on either side of the canal announcing a sale to American company BlackRock. Secretary Hegseth laying out the vital importance of the canal to U.S.
interests. President Trump today recognizes the canal's rightful place as the center of our shared hemisphere.
It connects two continents and two oceans, transporting over $250 billion in goods per year and 40% of U.S. shipping.
70% of the ships that pass through this canal are going to or from U.S. ports.
It saves nearly 8,000 miles for shipping traveling between our coasts. President Trump making control of the canal a day one priority of his second term.
Mr. Trump not ruling out reclaiming the canal with military force.
Possible plans of a D.C. military parade in the works.
The Hill reporting an unnamed Army official saying, quote, there are plans for a parade that will involve the Army. Politico reporting the White House denies a parade has been scheduled, but D.C.
Mayor Muriel Bowser confirming discussions with the administration. The Army celebrating its 250th birthday on June 14th, the same day as President Trump's 79th birthday.
The idea of a military parade in the Capitol, inspired by President Trump's 2017 visit to France on Bastille Day. Mr.
Trump teasing French President Emmanuel Macron in a joint press conference months later. I do want to say that I was your guest at Bastille Day, and it was one of the greatest parades I've ever seen.
It was two hours on the button, and it was military might, and I think a tremendous thing for France and for the spirit of France. And to a large extent, because of what I witnessed, we may do something like that on July 4th in Washington down Pennsylvania.
I don't know. We're going to have to try and top it.
In 2018, plans for a military parade scrapped following complaints of high costs of safety measures estimated to be around $90 million, though this time around, Doge saves about that much every couple of hours.

So we'll see. That'll do it for your AM Update.
I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for The Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megankelly,

and on all podcast platforms.