Published Date: 01.07.2025 15:19 / Politics Kris Hains Kris Hains

Trump Inner Circle’s Response After 2024 Shooting Revealed

Trump Inner Circle’s Response After 2024 Shooting Revealed

A new book reveals dramatic inside details of Trump’s response and close aides’ reactions after the 2024 assassination attempt.

Book Excerpt Sheds Light on Aftermath in Butler, Pennsylvania

The immediate aftermath of the July 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump is brought vividly to life in a new book, offering the public its first behind-the-scenes look at how Trump and his inner circle handled the harrowing incident. The account is included in “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” set for release on July 8 and authored by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf.

During the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as gunshots rang out, Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles was among those who shouted for others to get down. According to the excerpt published by the Washington Post, “The shooting stopped. Wiles rushed to the side of the tent to see if she could tell what had happened. She caught a glimpse of Trump just as he was standing up. She saw the blood. She saw him struggling with the agents, looking for his shoes, raising his fist. She couldn’t tell where he was hit, but she thought he was going to be okay.”

Wiles was quickly ushered into a motorcade, waiting anxiously for other advisers Steven Cheung and Dan Scavino to join her. The authors recount a poignant moment as Scavino was seen some forty feet behind, picking something up off the ground. Wiles rolled down her window and shouted, ‘Get in the car!’—only realizing once he joined that he had retrieved Trump’s bloodstained red MAGA cap.

Trump’s Determination and the Response at the Hospital

As the motorcade sped away, Wiles learned from the head of Trump’s Secret Service detail that the president was breathing and stable. Upon arrival at the hospital, Trump insisted on walking in under his own power, refusing a stretcher because he didn’t want “the visual,” according to the excerpt. In the hospital, Wiles, Scavino, and Cheung were greeted with a scene that reflected both gravity and relief. Trump recounted to the authors, “It was bleeding like a b----. They thought I had four or five bullets in me because there was so much blood.” The tension began to ease only when Trump started joking with his aides, signaling he was out of immediate danger.

Meanwhile, Melania Trump requested that the president return to Bedminster, his New Jersey golf club, and asked that the area be cleared as a security measure. The episode not only shook Trump’s core team but prompted a wave of messages and phone calls from individuals not usually in his close circle.

The book highlights a particularly striking detail: “Trump was flooded with calls and messages expressing relief, sending strength and wishing him well—some from unusual sources. Sylvester Stallone called. He heard from two of the richest men in the world, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.”

Even frequent critics reached out. Both Zuckerberg and Bezos praised Trump’s courage and the image he projected to the nation as he defiantly raised his fist and shouted “FIGHT!” in the moments following the shooting. According to the authors, Bezos told Trump that his instincts in the moment revealed his true character, and that he hoped they could develop a friendship moving forward.

The new details offered in “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America” paint a portrait of a president surrounded by loyal advisers, determined to project resilience, and newly united—even with some past adversaries—by the shared shock of a national crisis. The full account will be available to readers when the book is released on July 8.