Butler

Salena Zito, a veteran political reporter for the Washington Examiner and lifelong western Pennsylvania resident, opens with a historical parallel. In December 1753, 21-year-old George Washington, a young Virginia militia major, traveled through present-day Butler County on a diplomatic mission. After the French commander rebuffed him, a French-aligned Indigenous guide ambushed Washington near an outpost known as Murdering Town and fired at point-blank range, narrowly missing. Had the musket ball found its mark, Zito argues, there would have been no General Washington, no President Washington, and possibly no America. More than 270 years later, in the same county, another future president survived an assassin's bullet by an equally slim margin.

On July 13, 2024, Zito was at the Butler Farm Show Complex with her daughter Shannon Venditti, a photojournalist, and son-in-law Michael when four gunshots rang out at 6:11 p.m. Former President Donald Trump flinched, grabbed his ear, and ducked behind the podium as blood streaked his face. Secret Service agents swarmed him. Trump's press advance man shoved Zito down and shielded the family. From the ground, Zito heard Trump insist on putting his shoes back on before rising, pumping his fist, and shouting "Fight. Fight. Fight." Minutes earlier, Trump had done something unprecedented: He called up an immigration chart early in his speech and turned his head to point at it, two actions he had never combined before. This impulsive deviation saved his life; had he not turned, a bullet likely would have struck the base of his skull.

Zito traces Butler County's history to establish its significance as a cross-section of America: farmland, a college town, a steel mill, and suburban prosperity. She weaves in her own family's two-century roots in western Pennsylvania and introduces the concept of "rootedness," distinguishing between "placed" people tied to their hometowns for generations and "placeless" people such as reporters who develop affinities for ideology rather than communities. She identifies Trump's February 2023 visit to East Palestine, Ohio, after a Norfolk Southern train derailment as the inflection point that reversed his declining poll numbers. Trump showed up handing out hamburgers and water while President Joe Biden did not visit for a year, rekindling working-class support.

One person died in the shooting and two others were gravely wounded. The next morning, Trump called Zito and expressed deep sadness over the death of Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter who shielded his family from gunfire. He repeatedly questioned why he had changed his routine on stage. In his final call that day, Trump told Zito he attributed his survival to "the hand of God" and announced he had ripped up his convention speech to write one focused on national unity.

Zito reports from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, where the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, lived with his parents. Crooks had no social media presence and unformed politics. He joined a local sportsmen's club in August 2023 and visited over 40 times practicing rifle shooting before a law enforcement sniper killed him after he fired from a rooftop 400 feet from Trump. Governor Josh Shapiro visited the grounds the next morning, calling Comperatore a "hero" who died protecting his family. At the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company, firefighters arranged Comperatore's helmet, jacket, and boots as a memorial.

At the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Trump described the shooting in vivid detail, credited God for his survival, and honored Comperatore by kissing his helmet and jacket on stage. Zito profiles Erin Koper, a grassroots organizer from Pittsburgh who grew up a lifelong Democrat in the steel town of Weirton, West Virginia, and switched parties after Trump's 2015 campaign spoke to the dignity of work.

The Trump campaign, led by cocampaign chairs Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, had prepared for Biden's potential exit since May 2024. On July 21, Biden posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he was ending his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris 28 minutes later. LaCivita, Wiles, and pollster Tony Fabrizio planned to define Harris as "dangerously liberal" and the "border czar," a label referencing her role overseeing immigration and border policy. Minnesota governor Tim Walz labeled Trump and running mate Senator J. D. Vance of Ohio as "weird," a term that went viral, and Harris selected Walz over Shapiro on August 6. Shapiro told Zito that both he and Harris had faced "deeply personal" decisions; Zito infers Shapiro did not want the role and reads the selection as a signal that Democrats would pursue base mobilization rather than coalition building.

On July 31, Trump held his first Pennsylvania rally since the shooting. Zito describes a visible shift: People who previously hid their support now openly wore MAGA hats and displayed signs. In a backstage interview, Trump tells Zito he wants "hope" to be his legacy and frames the election around restoring the American dream. Zito traces her relationship with Vance, covering his willingness to take press questions that Harris avoided and his polished vice-presidential debate performance. She profiles Vance's mother, Beverly Aikins, a nurse who experienced addiction to heroin and alcohol for years and has been sober for nearly a decade.

Zito investigates Harris's Pennsylvania campaign and finds a pattern of invite-only events, secret locations, and no meaningful press access. Harris won the September debate on merit, Zito reports, but changed no votes in Pennsylvania. Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Harris in Pittsburgh, lecturing Black men for not supporting her. Black voters Zito interviews found the lecture insulting.

On October 5, Trump returned to Butler for a rally drawing over 60,000 people. Comperatore's jacket and helmet were displayed in the stands where he had been sitting. Trump opened with "As I was saying," then led a moment of silence. Backstage, Zito interviews Elon Musk, the technology entrepreneur and Trump ally, in what became the only print interview Musk gave during the cycle.

In the campaign's final weeks, the Atlantic published a story in which former Trump chief of staff John Kelly called Trump a fascist, a charge that became Harris's closing argument. Trump worked the drive-through at a McDonald's, connecting with voters through humor. After a controversial joke about Puerto Rico at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally, Zito travels to Allentown and finds the crowd packed with enthusiastic Hispanic supporters. On the same night Harris delivered her closing speech, Biden called Trump supporters "garbage" on a Zoom call, drowning out her message. On Election Night, Trump won Pennsylvania by approximately two percentage points, as Zito had predicted.

A bipartisan House Task Force released its report on December 5, 2024, finding that the Secret Service failed to secure the building adjacent to the rally. Zito traces the collapse of local journalism, noting over 3,200 newspapers closed since 2005, and argues that national reporters in wealthy zip codes share no connection with the communities they cover. She cites a Pew Research Center survey showing news media as one of the least-trusted institutions in the country and the rise of podcasting, particularly podcaster Joe Rogan's three-hour Trump interview downloaded over 40 million times, as evidence of a fundamental shift in how Americans consume news.

On Inauguration Day, the first people Trump saw at his parade were Butler County first responders carrying Comperatore's jacket. When Vance was sworn in as vice president, he placed his hand on a King James Bible that belonged to his Appalachian great-grandmother, a symbol of the rootedness central to Zito's narrative. She concludes that voters in places like Butler decide elections, and that the working-class coalition Trump galvanized, united across racial lines by shared values of place, work, family, and faith, will endure beyond Trump himself.