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In her new book, “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland,” released just days before the first anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, veteran political reporter Salena Zito reveals what she believes is the one element the mainstream media has missed in their coverage of his rallies.
The Pennsylvania-based told Fox News Digital that when she first interviewed Trump during his 2016 run, she noticed how he interacted with “the people behind the scenes – the janitors, the people that were pushing the water bottles, the caterers, the plumbers, the electricians, the people that made the event happen that are never seen.”
Zito said she saw Trump communicating with American voters with an authenticity and curiosity that she hadn’t seen in a lot of politicians.
“I understood in that moment that he wasn’t a billionaire running for president, he was a guy that saw people that don’t usually get seen by elected officials, in a way that was very unique. Between that and driving across the country and interviewing people, I understood that he was going to win that cycle,” Zito said of the 2016 election.
Then-presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak during a campaign rally at Sunset Park in Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 9, 2024. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Flash forward to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
“What I noticed covering 2024 was the amount of young people that were out there, that were engaged, that were excited, that were voting for the first time, and really excited to be part of ‘bigger than self’… and they really glommed on and became excited about the way that President Trump talks about Americanism and love of country and getting to a better place together,” Zito said.
Salena Zito takes cover with her daughter and son-in-law after Donald Trump’s attempted assassination at a rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Zito’s book takes readers back to July 13, 2024, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired multiple gunshots into the Butler crowd, grazing Trump’s ear, injuring two people and killing one rally attendee, firefighter Corey Comperatore. She had planned to interview Trump at the Butler rally and was mere steps away from him when the shots were fired.
But when Zito heard the shots, she told Fox News Digital, “I didn’t get down. There was this inner voice that told me, ‘You have a job to do, continue doing it.’” As a journalist, Zito quickly began to commit the historic moment to memory as it was unfolding, gathering details that eventually led to her book.
Supporters of then-President-Elect Donald Trump attend a rally at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C., on Sunday Jan. 19th, 2025, the eve of Inauguration Day. (Breanne Deppisch/Fox News Digital)
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Throughout the campaign, Zito said she could feel that sense of community building at Trump rallies. While his supporters have various degrees of support for the president, at Trump rallies, she said they are happy, patriotic and excited.
“Trump pulled them together by place and rootedness and connective tissue, and it was really, really missed by my profession, but it was so right in front of me everywhere I went in Pennsylvania.”
