Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland
by Salena Zito
View on GoodreadsSalena Zito's reconstruction of the July 13, 2024 Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Trump — including her own on-the-scene reporting — paired with her broader argument about rural Pennsylvania and the Trump base.
Core ideas
- The minute-by-minute reconstruction of the shooting is the book's documentary anchor — Thomas Crooks's positioning, the Secret Service failures, the bystander deaths, and the iconic ear-grazed-blood-on-fist moment in real time.
- The Secret Service institutional failure is treated with serious attention — building on Leonnig's Zero Fail patterns, the specific Butler decisions (the rooftop coverage gap, the early local warnings unacted on) are reconstructed.
- Zito's broader frame on rural Pennsylvania is sympathetic to her subjects in a way most coastal-press coverage isn't; she has been reporting on the Mon Valley working class for decades, and the political analysis is built on actual familiarity.
Published2025
Pages238
ISBN9781546009160
ReadMar 2026
