Trump was shot a year ago. Why do we still know so little?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
One year ago in Butler, Pennsylvania, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to get onto a nearby roof and take shots at Donald Trump. In the aftermath many wondered — who was this man who shot the presidential candidate, and how was he allowed to get so close to killing him?
Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with investigative reporter Carol Leonnig about the mystifying search for a motive and what she and others have concluded about what went wrong that day, one year later.
Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Maggie Penman and mixed by Rennie Svirnovsky.
If you want to learn more about how the shooting in Butler changed Trump, our colleague Isaac Arnsdorf was on “Post Reports” on Friday to talk about that. His new book is “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of the days from last year that stands out most clearly in my mind is the day Donald |
| 0:08.6 | Trump was shot. |
| 0:09.3 | If you want to really see something that said, take a look at what happened. Most of us have probably seen the photos from the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, |
| 0:27.6 | of Trump rising up, surrounded by Secret Service, pumping his fist in the air, with blood smeared across his face. |
| 0:35.6 | We would later learn that the gunman was 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. |
| 0:40.6 | He grew up in Pennsylvania, not far from where the rally took place. |
| 0:44.4 | And in the days and weeks following the shooting, it wasn't clear why he had done it, or how |
| 0:49.3 | he'd been able to get so close to killing the then former president. |
| 0:57.5 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:01.1 | I'm Kolby Ekowitz. |
| 1:02.5 | It's Sunday, July 13th. |
| 1:04.6 | Today, we're bringing you a special episode on the one-year anniversary of the shooting. |
| 1:10.5 | I spoke with my colleague, investigative reporter Carol Lenig, about why we still know so little |
| 1:15.7 | about the gunman's motive and what we can learn from the security failures of that day. Carol, I'm so thrilled to have you on. |
| 1:34.5 | Oh, it's so good to be here with you, Colby. |
| 1:37.2 | So, Carol, in the last year, you've been looking into the gunmen who attempted to assassinate |
| 1:43.6 | Trump. What have you learned about him? |
| 1:46.4 | In many ways, Thomas Crooks is the classic profile of a mass shooter. And I say many ways, because there's one way in which he's not. |
| 1:58.6 | The many ways, like a Hinckley, a John Hinkley who tried to kill President |
| 2:03.6 | Reagan, like an Arthur Bremmer, who tried to kill President Nixon and eventually shot and paralyzed |
| 2:10.0 | George Wallace. These individuals were isolated men, loners, very disaffected and separate from their peers and colleagues, |
| 2:21.7 | didn't have very many friends. They had something sad and torturous about their lives. And they |
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