The following is an excerpt from the newly published book “The Trump Assassination Plots: What the Investigations Missed, and Why it Matters.” The book, which can be found here, attempts to provide the most complete account to date of the attempts on Donald Trump’s life (emphasis ours),
A Deadly Day in Butler
*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK*
Three shots rang throughout the Butler Farm Show - causing Trump to grab his ear and fall on the ground, his security detail piling on top of him moments later. Numerous rallygoers later said that they thought they were hearing fireworks at first, but there was a shooter on the AGR rooftop. His first three shots were aimed at Trump, but then he started spraying seemingly indiscriminately.
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As Crooks fired, Butler ESU operator Aaron Zaliponi, who was on the ground, could see his head peeking over the rooftop. Zaliponi had been one of the Butler ESU operators deployed seconds before Crooks started firing. When the shooting began, he was between Trump’s podium and the AGR building - by the fence that separated the Farm Show from the company’s property.
Keeping calm despite the bullets whizzing by, Zaliponi focused on Crooks through the EOTECH red-dot sight on his M4 AR platform SWAT rifle.
*CRACK*
Zaliponi returned fire with a single 5.56mm NATO 62 grain TAP Barrier projectile.
“I can see the gas emit from his barrel, his muzzle. Then right after that I hear the snap of his fifth shot go off. Then immediately after that, I press one off, and that’s whenever he immediately goes down. When I say he goes down, it wasn’t like he was ducking to get out of the way. I mean, like, I know I hit him. Like there’s no doubt about it,” Zaliponi later recounted. “He goes down. He kind of jerks to the right, and then he kind of slumps over slowly and then kind of slowly rolls backwards out of my field of view.”For the next 10 seconds, the crowd seemed to be under a spell. Some in the stands ducked down, some turned toward the AGR building, and some looked with concern at Trump.
“What are we doing? What are we doing?” one of Trump’s security agents could be heard saying frantically.
At the bottom of a body-bunker of agents who piled onto Trump, the second-in-command of his detail could see that he was bleeding.
“Sir, are you okay?” said Nick Menster, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC).
“I think so,” Trump said.
Menster said that he used a white cloth that Trump had at the podium to apply pressure on his ear - the left one.
“No, it’s my right ear,” Trump corrected the agent.
Counter-Snipers in DisarrayOn the barn rooftops behind Trump, the Secret Service counter-snipers were in similar disarray. Though they had reoriented their weapons toward the AGR building at 6:10 P.M. and were aware that local police were pursuing someone in that vicinity, they were still caught flat-footed when the shooting began.
A tree was blocking the northern barn counter-sniper team’s view of the rooftop gunman, and video shows them seemingly flinching at the first shots. One of them later told congressional investigators that he and his partner believed they took fire.
“I’m telling you, I could have reached out and smacked these projectiles out of the air with my hand. They were that close. I could feel the air, the pressure difference in my eardrum as these rounds passed,” said a Secret Service counter-sniper, who has not been publicly identified.While the Secret Service counter-snipers were scrambling, Sgt. Zaliponi kept a watchful eye on the rooftop. He saw Crooks slowly crawl back up and into his sights. But just as the local cop was about to put another bullet into the would-be assassin, Secret Service counter-sniper David King fired a final, 10th shot — a .300 Winchester Magnum bullet. King’s shot, fired from the southern barn behind Trump, came 15 seconds after shooting began and 10 seconds after it had stopped.
*CRACK*
“I got him,” King said.
It’s unclear exactly how long King had the rooftop gunman in his sights.
According to notes King took immediately after the shooting, he saw Crooks “crawling” into position before firing.
“I and my teammates positioned ourselves to observe that area that everyone was moving to. I noticed an individual, white male, white or gray shirt, low crawling on the roof. I noticed an AR-style weapon in his hands. As I moved to observe through my rifle scope I heard weapon fire,” King’s notes said.However, King later told congressional investigators that he didn’t actually see Crooks crawling. In fact, he didn’t see Crooks until after he stopped firing, King said.
“I was observing the rooftops, didn’t see anything… When the first shot rang out, I identified the location that Crooks was at, put my binos down, got my rifle. At the time that I was getting into my rifle and getting the [view] of Crooks, that’s when I assumed that three rounds and then five went off,” King told House investigators.King’s partner, team leader John Marciniak, claimed he didn’t see Crooks until he was dead.
Marciniak indicated that he was discombobulated after a bullet ruptured a hydraulic line on a nearby speaker tower, spraying him with fluid. At first, Marciniak thought that he was having a heat stroke. Another thought flashed through his head: “Am I seeing snow right now?”
Unlike his counterparts on the north barn, Marciniak and King didn’t think they were under fire — though Marciniak may have had second thoughts after speaking to federal investigators.
“At the time, I had no reason to believe shots were fired at us until speaking to the FBI… I guess a round — it was in the air, in our [general] direction, but not close to us.”Excerpt from “The Trump Assassination Plots: What the Investigations Missed, and Why it Matters.”
Tyler Durden Sun, 05/17/2026 - 23:20Eleven months after President Trump launched an all-out political war on Rep. Thomas Massie, the Tuesday, May 19 Kentucky GOP primary is almost here. With polls showing the race going down to the wire, the anti-Massie forces -- whose animus is largely driven by Massie's refusal to vote in accordance with the Israel lobby's wishes -- have been throwing everything they can at him, from vague 11th-hour allegations of inappropriate conduct with a woman, to AI ads showing Massie entering a hotel room with progressive congresswomen, to a new round of Trump social media rants and enough money to make the contest the most expensive House primary in US history. Massie's challenger is former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein.
In just the past few days, various anti-Massie PACs have filed disclosures indicating another huge load of cash showering down on the race. The Republican Jewish Coalition is spending another $470,000. The misleadingly-named United Democracy Project, which is a PAC affiliated with the formidable American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), revealed more than $950,000 in additional spending. The MAGA Kentucky PAC -- which was created solely to oust Massie and funded by non-Kentuckian Jewish billionaires Miriam Adelson, Paul Singer and John Paulsen -- disclosed more than $1.6 million since May 7.
UPDATE: AIPAC and the Israel lobby have now spent >$15 MILLION boosting Ed Gallrein and attacking Rep. Thomas Massie in #KY04. pic.twitter.com/Znmtc4GEXz
— AIPAC Tracker (@TrackAIPAC) May 16, 2026As large as those sums sound, they're just a fresh coating atop a mountain of money: The race has now seen more than $20 million dollars in "outside spending" -- that is, money spent by PACs and other entities that are not part of the candidates' campaigns or political parties. Not coincidentally, the next two most-expensive-ever primary races also featured quests by pro-Israel PACs and individuals to oust incumbents who failed to heed the Israel lobby's voting directives. In 2024, AIPAC alone spent $14.5 million and $9 million, respectively, to successfully dislodge New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman and Missouri Democrat Cori Bush.
On Tuesday -- exactly one week before the primary -- Massie was hit by oddly-vague allegations of wrongdoing by an ex-girlfriend, Cynthia West, who said Massie paid her $5,000 in "hush money" after the two had dated following Massie becoming a widower in 2024. Massie denies the characterization of the money, saying he gave it to her to help her move to Washington, and that she even repaid some of the money. What's more, he said she's never been under any restriction from him about speaking about anything. Among others, the sensationalist, pro-Israel attack-dog Laura Loomer has been running wild with the non-story on X, with characteristic long posts heavy on innuendo and light on details or evidence. (For a deep dive, check out Robby Soave's thorough dissection of the fuzzy allegations at Reason.)
There's more where that came from. Earlier this month, the Adelson-Singer-Paulsen-funded MAGA KY PAC rolled out an anti-Massie ad that used AI video showing him cavorting on the town with Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. The ad starts by displaying "Thomas Massie caught in a throuple!" on the screen. It concludes by showing the three holding hands and checking into a hotel room together:
#KYPol: "Thomas Massie, caught in a throuple in Washington. He's cheating with the Squad on the America First movement...it's a complete and total betrayal of President Trump."
MAGA KY is up with a new #KY04 ad featuring AI-generated content. pic.twitter.com/MEUmsPdH5W
While the video has a brief, smaller-print disclosure calling it a "satirical ad created with artificial intelligence," some people, including Massie, say that notification may go overlooked, particularly by those in the older crowd where Gallrein draws the most support. "Older voters who don't know that AI exists [are] going to look at that and think that's actually me going on a date with AOC and Ilhan Omar and checking into a hotel together. It's so ridiculous,” said Massie at a "debate" that, along with all the other debates, Gallrein refused to participate in. Gallrein has skipped eight debate opportunities, which is an extraordinary choice for someone challenging an incumbent who's spent most of the race leading the polls, albeit by decreasing margins.
In one of the most eyebrow-raising ads on Massie's behalf, Restore Freedom PAC recently launched this one that attacks Gallrein over this sponsorship by billionaire Paul Singer, who has donated to LGBT causes, imploring voters to "say 'no' to Woke Eddie Gallrein and his billionaire club of LGBT weirdos."
NEW: Take a look at this #KY04 ad called "LGBTQ Mafia" from a PAC affiliated w/ Jan. 6 rioter Derrick Evans.
It depicts Jewish donor Paul Singer with an unexplained rainbow Star of David.
More on this insane, now record-breaking $25 million primary: https://t.co/iT3YN8wYEz pic.twitter.com/0YIRYmaJwL
In a Big Data poll published Friday, Massie was up by just 1.2%, leading Gallrein 50.6% to 49.4%. Like other polls, Big Data's showed enormous differences across age groups. At the extremes, 82% of voters under age 30 support Massie, while 61% of voters over age 64 support Gallrein.
After long having Massie out in front by often-large percentages, prediction markets have shifted mightily in Gallrein's direction in the closing weeks of the primary, to an extent that some have accused anti-Massie individuals of manipulating the markets to create headlines and optimism for Gallrein. As of Saturday night, Polymarket participants gave Gallrein a 53% chance of winning, while Kalshi's gave him a 54% chance. Massie's odds, meanwhile, have been... well...
//--> //--> Will Thomas Massie be the Republican nominee for KY-04?With early voting having ended Saturday and the election happening Tuesday, various political figures have been flying into Kentucky to boost Massie or Gallrein. In an unusual move, the sitting Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, will campaign with Gallrein on Monday. Over the weekend, former Congressman Matt Gaetz and current Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert made appearances with Massie.
The latter appearance triggered Trump's wrath, which was manifested in the latest of his dozens and dozens of Truth Social posts excoriating Massie and his supporters. Much as he did with MAGA-centric Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (MTG), Trump is now excommunicating long-time supporter Boebert from the movement, and seeking a primary challenger for her (though he may not have realized it's too late for this cycle.) On Saturday night, Trump let loose on the "weak-minded" and "dumb" Boebert:
It should be noted that, while Boebert has almost uniformly backed Trump's agenda, she was one of a small handful of Republicans -- including MTG, who defied Trump and joined Massie in demanding the release of the Epstein files. Trump's vilification of Boebert was one of three Massie-centric rants Trump posted on Saturday. In them, he called Massie a "major sleazebag," a "loser," an "insult to our nation," and an "disloyal, ungracious and sanctimonious FOOL."
Massie gets high marks from right-wing evaluators of his voting record, but has refused to support several Trump undertakings. In Trump's first term, Massie tried to thwart the $2 trillion Covid-19 "relief" package. Last May, Massie was one of only two Republicans to vote against the "Big Beautiful Bill." The last straw was Massie's condemnation of Trump's June 2025 decision to join Israel in waging war on Iran, and Massie's introduction of a war powers resolution to prohibit further military action without congressional consent. Within days, the PAC funded by three pro-Israel billionaires was launched.
Asked if he would change his party affiliation to Democrat, Thomas Massie replied:
"I vote with Republicans 91% of the time, and the 9% I don't, they're taking up for pedophiles, starting another war, or bankrupting our country." 🔥 pic.twitter.com/5UOfWYSEvh
Massie has repeatedly put a spotlight on the fact that Gallrein's campaign is being turbocharged by pro-Israel forces. In a "debate" on public TV that Gallrein opted out of, Massie told the audience:
“This is another reason I’m in trouble with the swamp, why they want me gone. 95% of my opponent’s donations come from the Israeli lobby. This comes from Miriam Adelson, Paul Singer, John Paulson, AIPAC. They put millions of dollars into this race for one simple reason: I’ve never voted for foreign aid, not to Ukraine, not to Egypt and not to Israel."
The Massie campaign has countered the Israel lobby's enormous monetary onslaught to some extent via small-dollar donations from thousands of supporters from across the country, achieving particular success with three "moneybomb" campaigns. The "Finish the Fight Moneybomb" raked in more than $2.4 million, and a "Final Countdown Moneybomb" that started on Saturday had $31,000 in the early-Sunday hours.
Tuesday will also bring primary elections in Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Oregon and Pennsylvania. However, on both sides of the aisle, all across the country -- and in Israel -- none will be more closely-watched than the Kentucky 4th Congressional District race in which Trump and his pro-Israel allies have gone all-in to remove Massie.
Tyler Durden Sun, 05/17/2026 - 22:45Authored by Eric Utter via AmericanThinker.com,
Former Vice President Kamala (hic!) Harris recently opined that there are “no bad ideas” when it comes to brainstorming ways to reinvigorate the Democrat party.
During a May 13th livestream on something called the "Win with Black Women" podcast, Hic! Harris suggested that the Democrat party prepare an "expanded playbook" of ideas to help it retake power after the 2026 midterm elections.
Harris opined:
"And in that no bad ideas brainstorm, we talk about what we need to do and think about doing around the Electoral College. We talk about the idea of Supreme Court reform, which includes expanding the Supreme Court. We invite a conversation about multi-member districts."
The old sot suggested that, when Democrats retake the Senate, the Senate Judiciary Committee should quickly establish rules to "penalize people for lying" for Supreme Court justices and nominees.
It is always hilarious when Democrats speak of their dislike for lying … and always lie.
They are to prevarication as Kamala is to drinking, as retrievers are to … retrieving things. They can’t help themselves.
The Tipsy One added,
“Let's talk about statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C. These are the things I think that we've got to do.”
She concluded by saying of Democrats:
"We gotta fight fire with fire. We gotta be ruthless, too."
Democrats start fires. (They don’t always put them out, as clearly demonstrated in Los Angeles County last year.) And Democrats have always been ruthless, whether they were plantation owners or, more recently, possessed by Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and the rabid desire to dispense, by any means necessary, with those with whom they disagree.
As for the notion that there are no bad ideas? How about “Let’s kill all the Jews” or “Islam is totally compatible with a free, democratic republic?” Or even, “I’ve only had 10 rum and cokes, I think I’ll take a nice drive in my car?” And let’s be honest, Kamala doesn’t have brainstorms, she has perhaps a mild squall or minor dust-up on occasion, maybe even a moderate gust of wind, but no brainstorms.
So, Democrats, just continue to call conservatives Nazis. Keep trying to imprison all your political opponents. An assassination or two might be needed here and there to, you know, “save our democracy.” (The problem is that Democrats actually think the country is their democracy, and that no one else has a right to govern it.)
Kamala may still have her mind set on Running for President Under the Influence (RPUI), but it is hard to see any current likely Democrat heading a ticket the equal of Vance-Rubio or vice-versa. As sure as water is wet, Democrats will resort to their time-tested tactics of slander, libel, lies, gas-lighting, projection, and cheating.
Maybe they should just, hic!, forcibly take power via a good, old-fashioned insurrection?
Anything to save their our democracy, right?
Tyler Durden Sun, 05/17/2026 - 22:10