Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland -- Salena Zito, Hardcover

"Salena Zito is the journalist who knows Trump--and his voters--better than anyone." - The Free Press

From the acclaimed journalist standing only a few feet away from the stage when the gunshots began is this gripping first-hand account of the near assassination of Donald Trump - and the inside story of Trump's heartland-fueled victory.

Had the wind gusted less, had the former president's head turned in a slightly different direction, or had the adrenaline-fueled heart of the shooter beat slower, America would have been plunged into chaos, possibly even civil war. As a Pennsylvania native who happened to be four feet from the presidential podium when the shots were fired, Salena Zito has written the definitive book on this assault on American democracy. "I rarely look away from the crowd," Trump told her in one of those exclusive interviews. "Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?"

As a local reporter with deep ties to the area, Salena was granted access to community members, rally participants, family members and local law enforcement officials. For the reporting of this book, President Trump granted the author exclusive access, along with his top aides and even his security detail. Zito explores the unanswered questions surrounding this attack: Who was this shooter? What were his motives? Why was it so easy for him to get so shockingly close to murdering an American president? Why did law enforcement respond so lethargically when the shooter was pointed out beforehand by bystanders in the crowd? How will the Secret Service be held accountable for a situation not seen since the attack on Reagan in 1981? What dangers lie in wait for Trump in the months and years ahead?

There are moments that define America. The late afternoon hours of July 13, 2024 was one of them. This book is a narrative of that fateful day, the people involved, the untold story of how the president found his way back into the heart of the electorate, why he goes to places like Butler in the first place, and the coming reckoning in our institutions as a result of what happened that day.

Author: Salena Zito
Publisher: Center Street
Published: 07/08/2025
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Size: 9.25h x 6.25w x 0.89d
ISBN: 9781546009146

About the Author

Salena Zito is a veteran political reporter with more than twenty years of award-winning experience in print and broadcast journalism. With her trusty Jeeps that have clocked well over 400,000 miles on their odometers and a refusal to travel on interstates, Zito is a reporter who harkens to an older generation of journalism, one who listens to the stories of everyday Americans in places far outside the artificial bubbles of Manhattan and the Beltway. One of the last scribes of middle America, she famously popularized the root cause of their failed coverage and underestimation of Donald Trump by the phrase coined by Brad Todd saying, "The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally." Zito is a national political reporter for the Washington Examiner, and a special contributor to the Washington Post. She has been a columnist for the New York Post and has contributed to The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.