They Shoot Presidents In Butler

The following excerpt is taken from the new book “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland,” by Salena Zito (July 2025, Center Street/Hachette Book Group)

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They Shoot Presidents in Butler

George Washington was less than pleased.

It was December 26, 1753, well past dusk and the temperature had dropped dramatically as darkness fell. Thanks to the drop in temperature, the mix of sleet and snow would make travel perilous in the deeply forested wilderness of what is now present-day Butler County.

But Washington and his guide Christopher Gist were left with little choice; they had to move, and move quickly.

They needed to make their way to the forks of the Ohio River. Days later, Washington, then a young major in the Virginia militia, would write in his journal that fear coursed through his veins and spurred the urgency of their flight after he was nearly killed by an assassin’s bullet that whizzed past his ear just hours earlier.

Both he and Gist knew his assassin would be back to finish the job.

Cover credit: Center Street/Hachette Book Group

Cover credit: Center Street/Hachette Book Group

At twenty-one years old, Washington was on his first diplomatic mission, with direct orders from the Crown tucked in his saddlebag to basically tell the French to get off King George II’s land or face war with England.

In 1753, the British and French Empires were in the early stages of clashing over their colonial possessions. Britain’s North American colonies were mostly packed along the Atlantic coastline and then moved westward toward the Allegheny Mountains.

France’s colonial holdings were in the center spine of the country that began in New Orleans and ran up along the Mississippi River into the Great Lakes region toward the St. Lawrence River. Both empires claimed control of the vast expanse of what was then known as the Ohio Country, which began in present-day western Pennsylvania and West Virginia and spread due west across the states of Ohio and Indiana.

Washington was at the center of that clash of royal aspirations, which were largely spurred by greed in the form of an immense royal grant to the Ohio Company, whose largest investor was Robert Dinwiddie, Virginia’s royal (lieutenant) governor and the man who sent Washington on the mission.

The young Virginian’s destination was Fort Le Boeuf, just fifteen miles south of Lake Erie. In Washington’s possession was a note from London, signed by King George II, that read: “If the French were found to be building forts on English soil, they should be peacefully asked to depart. If they failed to comply, however, we do hereby strictly charge and command you to drive them off by force of arms.”

The trip from Virginia had been a daunting 250 miles of untouched wilderness. It involved scaling high ice-crusted ridges, slogging through thick brush, swamps, and dense forests with mounds of heavy snow, and navigating icy waterways. The journey was as difficult as one could imagine, not just because of the terrain but also because of a weather system that had pummeled Washington and Gist the entire way.

Washington arrived at Fort Le Boeuf on December 11. The fort system was rudimentary at best, made of scrap bark and planks and consisting of four buildings. The young soldier and French commander Capt. Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre had a cordial, diplomatic conversation despite Washington’s delivery of the Crown’s demand that the French vacate the Ohio Valley immediately.

Saint-Pierre made clear that he was not intimidated by the British and retained every right to arrest their traders who were poaching on French territory. “As to the summons you sent me to retire, I do not think myself obliged to obey it.”

Four days later, Saint-Pierre handed Washington a sealed message for Dinwiddie. It was then that Washington discovered that, although Saint-Pierre had filled Washington’s canoe with a generous amount of supplies for the journey home, the French commander had also bribed Washington’s Indian guides with food and drink to stay behind.

Washington was furious. He had not only been deceived by Saint-Pierre; he had also observed enough during his four-day wait for the commander to respond to Dinwiddie to know that France was building a large-scale fort system throughout the disputed territory. He also observed that they were building a formidable military operation, which was prepared to defend the land the French would take over.

Washington and Gist set off, anxious to deliver the news to Dinwiddie. However, their horses were so debilitated by the journey to Fort Le Boeuf that the men had to abandon them and continue on foot.

On the journey toward the outpost known as Murdering Town (in present-day Butler), they were heavily burdened by their backpacks. Along the way, they encountered several French Indians who quickly — probably too quickly, in hindsight — offered to help get them to the forks of the Ohio River. The battering snow and sleet, freezing cold, and rough terrain had worn Washington down, and when one of the Indian guides offered to carry his backpack, he took him up on it.

Gist, a skilled surveyor and frontier guide, immediately sensed something was off about the situation. He wasn’t wrong. As soon as the group came to a clearing, one of the Indians sprinted ahead of them into a meadow and then turned to face the two men before firing point-blank at Washington from fifteen paces.

The exact amount by which the French-aligned Indian missed Washington is unclear. Washington’s diary entry is vague, but the intent was obvious. The Indian guide wanted the young Virginian dead.

If muskets had contained rifling — grooves inside the barrel to make a bullet travel more accurately — 270 years ago, everything in the world would have changed at that moment.

There would have been no skirmish several months later in present-day Fayette County, Pennsylvania, between Washington’s regiment and French soldiers — a skirmish that led to the first shots fired in what would quickly escalate into the French and Indian War. It was a war that ultimately led to the Revolutionary War, when the British Crown tried to tax the colonists to pay for debt incurred during the first true world war.

There would have been no General Washington, no President Washington, and we might not have the country we call America today if that bullet had been only an inch closer.

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Salena Zito is a veteran political reporter with more than twenty years of award-winning experience in print and broadcast journalism. With her trusty Jeeps that have clocked well over 400,000 miles on their odometers and a refusal to travel on interstates, Zito is a reporter who harkens to an older generation of journalism, one who listens to the stories of everyday Americans in places far outside the artificial bubbles of Manhattan and the Beltway. One of the last scribes of middle America, she famously popularized the root cause of their failed coverage and underestimation of Donald Trump by the phrase coined by Brad Todd saying, “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” Zito is a national political reporter for the Washington Examiner, and a special contributor to the Washington Post. She has been a columnist for the New York Post and has contributed to The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Excerpted from “Butler,” by Salena Zito. (Copyright 2025) Used with permission from Center Street, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Yet Another Mortgage Company Is Marketing Home Loans To Illegal Aliens

A mortgage lending company is marketing its loans to illegal aliens across the country, promising to “empower non-citizens” as it profits from the fallout of America’s border crisis.

Amres, a Pennsylvania-based company, offers loans across the continental United States and instructs illegal aliens on how they can obtain mortgages by leveraging a financial loophole. The company outlined its plan to “empower non-citizens” through Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN), which illegal aliens can obtain from the IRS. ITINs were created to allow non-citizens to comply with tax law and were never intended to be used as identification for lending.

“ITIN loans serve as a lifeline for a specific demographic: immigrant homebuyers who lack a Social Security Number (SSN),” Amres says in one of its guides. “This includes non-resident aliens, undocumented immigrants, and some lawful residents.”

The company made its targeting of illegal aliens particularly clear in a different guide, called “Bridging the Gap for Undocumented Residents,” which outlines how individual taxpayer identification numbers, distributed by the IRS, can be used by illegal aliens to obtain loans. “ITIN loans offer numerous advantages to undocumented residents,” the company says in the guide. “One of the primary benefits is that they provide a pathway to homeownership, a dream that may seem unattainable due to legal status.”

“ITIN loans play a crucial role in the mortgage industry as they enable lenders to extend credit to a wider range of borrowers. This includes those who may not have a Social Security number,” Amres says.

Amres even shared the stories of specific illegal aliens it says were able to take out a mortgage.

“Take, for example, the Rodriguez family,” Amres writes in the guide. “As undocumented residents, they had been living in a cramped apartment, struggling to save for a home. When they discovered ITIN loans, they were able to secure a mortgage and purchase a house.”

“Ms. Lopez, a single mother and an undocumented resident, was able to purchase her first home through an ITIN loan,” Amres goes on to say.

Amres cites more stories in another guide to ITIN lending. “Juan, a Mexican immigrant, faced difficulties securing a home loan due to his lack of social security number. However, with an ITIN loan, he was able to buy a home for his family,” the company says. “Maria, a single mother from Guatemala, was able to secure an ITIN loan despite her non-resident status.”

“These stories highlight the transformative power of ITIN loans, breaking down barriers for immigrant homebuyers and providing a pathway to homeownership. They underscore the importance of financial inclusivity,” the company goes on to say, as it touts its lending options for illegal aliens.

This same ITIN lending scheme is what fueled the growth of Colony Ridge, the massive Texas development that attracted thousands of illegal aliens, including cartel members, human smugglers, drug runners, and wanted murderers.

Amres did not respond to a request for comment.

These mortgages, Federation for American Immigration Reform Media Director Ira Mehlman says, could encourage illegal aliens to stay in the United States. 

“Access to mortgages can serve as an incentive for illegal aliens to remain in the country, especially at a time when the goal of the government is convincing illegal aliens to leave,” Mehlman previously told The Daily Wire. Congress could take many actions — from disclosure to outright prohibition — and set a national standard for states to follow.”

Amres is far from the only company that uses the ITIN lending to hand out mortgages to illegal aliens. Prysma Lending operates in seven different states, including Florida and Texas, as it similarly markets its mortgage loans to illegal aliens, The Daily Wire previously revealed. The company even hosted a talk with an immigration lawyer to discuss deportations and created a guide for illegal aliens on how to avoid deportations. “No Social Security or Green Card required,” Prysma says. “You have a right to homeownership, regardless of legal status.”

There’s also Beneficial State Bank, which offers auto loans to illegal aliens using ITINs as part of its broader plan to fight “systemic racism.” The company, founded by Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer, admits it has “extensive experience with loans tailored to the unique needs of undocumented immigrants.”

The ITIN lending scheme could become more precarious for lenders, however. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the IRS recently signed an agreement allowing immigration enforcement agents to obtain the names, addresses, and tax information for illegal aliens facing removal orders.

The agreement could aid in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign, and discourage illegal aliens from filing for ITINs. 

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