“I have a new purpose,” then-candidate Donald Trump told reporter Salena Zito after surviving the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. Salena joins Glenn Beck to reveal what Trump told her about God, his purpose in life, and why he really said, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, as she details in her new book, “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland”.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Salena, congratulations on your book. It is so good.
Just started reading it. Or listening to it, last night.
And I wish you would have -- I wish you would have read it. But, you know, the lady you have reading it is really good.
I just enjoy the way you tell stories.
The writing of this is the best explanation on who Trump supporters are. That I think I've ever read, from anybody.
It's really good.
And the description of your experience there at the edge of the stage with Donald Trump is pretty remarkable as well. Welcome to the program.
SALENA: Thank you, Glenn. Thank you so much for having me.
You know, I was thinking about this, as I was ready to come on. You and I have been along for this ride forever. For what?
Since 2006? 2005?
Like 20 years, right?
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.
SALENA: And I've been chronicling the American people for probably ten more years, before that. And it's really remarkable to me, as watching how this coalition has grown. Right?
And watching how people have the -- have become more aspirational.
And that's -- and that is what the conservative populist coalition is, right?
It is the aspirations of many, but the celebration of the individual.
And chronicling them, yeah. Has been -- has been, a great honor.
GLENN: You know, I was thinking about this yesterday, when -- when Elon Musk said he was starting another party.
And somebody asked me, well, isn't he doing what the Tea Party tried to do?
No. The Tea Party was not going to start a new party.
It was to -- you know, it was to coerce and convince the Republican Party to do the right thing. And it worked in many ways. It didn't accomplish what we hoped.
But it did accomplish a lot of things.
Donald Trump is a result of the Tea Party.
I truly believe that. And a lot of the people that were -- right?
Were with Donald Trump, are the people that were with the Tea Party.
SALENA: That's absolutely right.
So that was the inception.
So American politics has always had movements, that have been just outside of a party. Or within a party.
That galvanize and broaden the coalition. Right? They don't take away. Or walk away, and become another party.
If anything, if there is a third party out there, it's almost a Republican Party.
Because it has changed in so many viable and meaningful ways. And the Tea Party didn't go away. It strengthened and broadened the Republican Party. Because these weren't just Republicans that became part of this party.
It was independents. It was Democrats.
And just unhappy with the establishment Republicans. And unhappy with Democrats.
And that -- that movement is what we -- what I see today.
What I see every day. What I saw that day, in butler, when I showed I happen at that rally.
As I do, so many rallies, you know, throughout my career. And that one was riveting and changed everything.
GLENN: You made a great case in the opening chapter. You talk about how things were going for Donald Trump.
And how this moment really did change everything for Donald Trump.
Changed the trajectory, changed the mood.
I mean, Elon Musk was not on the Trump train, until this.
SALENA: Yeah.
GLENN: Moment. What do I -- what changed? How -- how did that work?
And -- and I contend, that we would have much more profound change, had the media actually done their job and reported this the way it really was. Pragmatism
SALENA: You know, and people will find this in the book. I'm laying on the ground with an agent on top of me.
I'm 4 feet away from the president.
And there's -- there's notices coming up on my phone. Saying, he was hit by broken glass.
And to this take, that remains part of this sibling culture, in American politics.
Because reporters were -- were so anxious to -- to right what they believed happened.
As opposed to what happened.
And it's been a continual frustration of mine, as a reporter, who is on the ground, all the time.
And I'll tell you, what changed in that moment.
And I say a nuance, and I believe nuance is dead in American journalism.
But it was a nuance and it was a powerful conversation, that I had with President Trump, the next day. He called me the next morning.
But it's a powerful conversation I had with him, just two weeks ago.
When he made this decision to say, fight, fight, fight.
People have put in their heads, why they think he said it. But he told me why he said that. And he said, Salena, in that moment, I was not Donald Trump the man. I was a former president. I was quite possibly going to be president again.
And I had an obligation to the country, and to the office that I have served in, to project strength. To project resolve.
To project that we will not be defeated.
And it's sort of like a symbolic eagle, that is always -- you know, that symbol that we look at, when we think about our country.
He said, that's why I said that. I didn't want the people behind me panicking. I didn't want the people watching, panicking.
I had to show strength. And it's that nuance -- that I think people really picked up on.
And galvanized people.
GLENN: So he told me, when he was laying down on the stage.
And you can hear him. Let me get up. Let me get up.
I've got to get up.
He told me, as I was laying on the stage. I asked him, what were you thinking? What was going through your head? Now, Salena, I don't know about you.
But with me. It would be like, how do I get off the stage? My first was survival.
He said, what was going on through his mind was, you're not pathetic. This is pathetic.
You're not afraid. Get up.
Get up.
And so is that what informed his fight, fight, fight, of that by the time that he's standing up, he's thinking, I'm a symbol? Or do you think he was thinking, I'm a symbol, this looks pathetic. It makes you look weak.
Stand up. How do you think that actually happened?
SALENA: He thinks, and we just talked about this weeks ago. He -- you know, and this is something that he's really thought about.
Right? You know, he's gone over and over and over. And also, purpose and God. Right? These are things that have lingered with him.
You know, he -- he thought, yes.
He did think, it was pathetic that he was on the ground. But he wasn't thinking about, I'm Donald Trump. It's pathetic.
He's thinking, my country is symbolically on the ground. I need to get up, and I need to show that my country is strong.
That our country is resolute.
And I need people to see that.
We can't go on looking like pathetic.
Right?
And I think that then goes to that image of Biden.
GLENN: You have been with so many presidents.
How many presidents do you think that you've personally been with, would have thought that and reacted that way?
SALENA: Probably only Reagan. Reagan would have. Reagan probably would have thought that.
And if you remember how he was out like standing outside.
You know, waving out the window. Right?
After he was shot.
GLENN: At the hospital, right.
SALENA: Had he not been knocked out, unconscious, you know, he probably would have done the same thing.
Because he was someone who deeply believed in American exceptionalism.
And American exceptionalism does not go lay on the ground.
GLENN: And the symbol.
Right. The symbol of the presidency.
SALENA: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that affects him today.
GLENN: So let me go back to God.
Because you talked to him the next day. And your book Butler.
He calls you up.
I love the fact that your parents would be ashamed of you. On what you said to him.
The language you used. That you just have to read the book.
It's just a great part.
But he calls you the next morning. And wants to know if you're okay.
And you -- you then start talking to him, about God.
And I was -- I was thinking about this, as I was listening to it. You know, Lincoln said, I wasn't -- I wasn't a Christian.
Even though, he was.
I wasn't a Christian, when I was elected. I wasn't a Christian when my son died.
I became a Christian at Gettysburg.
Is -- is -- I mean, I believe Donald Trump always believes in God, et cetera, et cetera.
Do you think there was a real profound change at Butler with him?
SALENA: Absolutely. You know, he called me seven times that day. Seven times, the take after seven.
GLENN: Crazy.
SALENA: Talked about. And I think he was looking for someone that he knew, that was there. And to try to sort it out.
Right? And I let him do most of the talking. I didn't pressure him.
At all. I believed that he was having -- you know, he was struggling. And he needed to just talk. And I believed my purpose was to listen.
Right? I know other reporters would have handled it differently. And that's okay. That's not the kind of reporter that I am.
And I myself was having my own like, why didn't I die?
Right?
Because it went right over my head.
And -- and so I -- he had the conversation about God.
He's funny. I thought it was the biggest mosquito in the world that hit me.
But he had talked profoundly about purpose. You know, and God.
And how God was in that moment.
It --
GLENN: I love the way you -- in the book, I love the way you said that as he's kind of working it out in his own he head.
He was like, you know, I -- I -- I always knew that there was some sort of, you know -- that God was present.
He said, but now that this has happened.
I look back at all of the trials.
All of the tribulations. Literally, the trials.
All of the things that have happened. And he's like, I realized God was there the whole time.
SALENA: Yes. He does. And it's fascinating to have been that witness to history, to have those conversations with him. Because I'm telling you. And y'all know, I can talk. I didn't say much of anything.
I just -- I just listened. I felt that was my purpose, in that moment.
To give him that space, to work it out.
I'm someone that is, you know, believes in God.
I'm Catholic. I followed my faith.
And -- and so, I thought, well, this is why God put me here. Right?
And to -- to have that -- to hear him talk about purpose, to hear him say, Salena. Why did I put a chart down?
I'm like, sir. I don't know. I thought you were Ross Perot for a second.
He never has a chart. And he laughed. And then he said, why did I put that chart down?
By that term, I never turned my head away from people at the rally. That's true.
That relationship is very transactional. It's very -- they feed off of each other.
It's a very emotive moment when you attend a rally. Because he has a way of talking at a rally. That you believe that you are seeing.
And he said, and I never turn my head away.
I never turn my head away.
Why did I turn my head away?
I don't remember consciously thinking about turning my head away. And then he says to me, that was God, wasn't it?
Yes, sir. It was. It was God.
And he said, that's -- that's why I have a new purpose.
And so, Glenn. I think it's important, when you look at the breadth of what has happened, since he was sworn in.
You see that purpose, every day.
He doesn't let up.
He continues going.
And it brings back to the beginning of the book.
Where you find out, that there was another president that was shot at in Butler.
And that was George Washington. And how different the country would have been, had he died in that moment.
And now think about how different the country would be, had President Trump died in that moment. There would be --
GLENN: We're talking to -- we're talking to Salena Zito. About her new book called Butler. The assassination attempt on President Trump. And it is riveting.
And, you know, it is so good. I wish the press would read it. Because it really explains who we are, who Trump supporters are. Who are, you know, red staters. It is so good at that. She's the best at that.
