Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito said the United States’s strikes on Iran made her remember what President Donald Trump told her after he survived his first assassination attempt in 2024.
Zito was present at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the then-presidential candidate narrowly dodged death two days before the 2024 Republican National Convention. The shooting left Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief from the area who attended the rally and shielded his family from oncoming gunfire, dead.
Zito said she “absolutely” expects the deaths of those killed in this new conflict in Iran to weigh on Trump, citing Comperatore’s death as her reason.
“[Trump is] still taking it very hard when Corey Comperatore lost his life in Butler,” Zito said Monday on The Hugh Hewitt Show. “That is something that really hits him hard, because he understands that that was someone who was coming to see him and to enjoy the day, and so that weighs on his mind.”
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“And you know, I was thinking about Butler in these past couple days, as this has gone on, and I remember what he said to me about, ‘There is a reason that I was saved that day. There was a reason that God wanted me to be around, to make decisions, to be president, and I have to live up to that purpose,’” Zito continued. “And these past two days really made me think this may be one of the great reasons that he was saved.”
Zito, who host Hugh Hewitt mentioned “is on Trump’s speed dial,” said she hasn’t spoken to the president since the conflict began, but she intends to ask about Trump’s “decision-making” on striking Iran. She said learning about the thought process is “really important.”
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Zito covered the assassination attempt on Trump and its impact on the 2024 election cycle in her book, Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland, which was released last year.
First lady Melania Trump paid tribute to the families of fallen soldiers who died in connection with the U.S. strikes against Iran during the United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday. She offered “my earnest wishes for a swift and smooth recovery to all those who have been injured,” and said the U.S. “stands with all of the children throughout the world.”
