Overview

• The Free Press released Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland on July 8.
• Zito recounts standing within feet of President Trump when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at the July 13, 2024, rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
• Her narrative details the echo of gunshots from Crooks’s rifle, the rapid Secret Service response, and Trump’s rallying cry of “fight, fight, fight” as he was helped to his feet.
• The memoir scrutinizes vulnerabilities in rally protection protocols and highlights volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore’s fatal act of shielding his family.
• Trump’s interviews following the book’s release frame the shooting as a defining presidential moment and emphasize his renewed sense of purpose.