Coming up at the Pittsburgh Marriott North

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Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland

featuring American political journalist & author, Salena Zito

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

100 Cranberry Woods Drive, Cranberry Township, PA, 16066

Register Here

Individual ticket price: $30.00

Table sponsorships are available!

Table Sponsor: $500.00 – includes 10 seats, recognition on the table, & ‘thank you’ in program and from stage

There are moments that change history forever. Moments people talk about, commemorate, and pray over for years to come. The Reagan shooting, the Challenger explosion, 9/11, January 6th. Salena Zito had no idea on that Saturday morning in Butler, Pennsylvania that she would be present for one of them. Join us for her take on the event & discussion of her latest book Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland, a gripping first-hand account of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump written by the acclaimed journalist who was only a few feet away from the stage when the gunshots began.

Questions? Email Olivia (Whiteman) McGalla at McGallaOC@gcc.edu

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. She has also taught journalism at Harvard University, Washington and Lee University and Hillsdale College with an unconventional curriculum of having the students leaving the comfort of the classroom and teaching them how to go out in the country and learn firsthand the experiences of people in this country.

Zito is also the author of “The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics” and “It’s Complicated: How Our Nation Is Coming Together and Falling Apart.” Her latest, “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland,” was published in July 2025.

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Continuing with the pursuit of teaching the next generation of American Leaders, the Institute for Faith & Freedom hosts a quarterly luncheon program: Foundations of American Leadership Series. These talks, now held at Pittsburgh Marriott North, Cranberry Township, PA, highlight some of the most important American leaders throughout our nation’s storied history. Talks have ranged from Benjamin Franklin to Whittaker Chambers and from Bill Clinton to James Madison. These talks provide a valuable forum for the Institute for Faith & Freedom to discuss important figures that stood for the same principles that the Institute seeks to espouse. The series has drawn hundreds of guests and features prominent scholars and thought leaders from across the country. At the Institute for Faith & Freedom, we view a love for truth and a love for liberty as inseparable allies. Liberty cannot long flourish in the absence of truth, and truth is not affirmed where liberty denied. In fact, America’s extraordinary achievement lies in the essential combination of both truth and liberty. Providing the popular Foundations of American Leadership Series fosters an environment for the study of liberty and truth in the lives of historic figures. Please consider joining us for our next Foundations of American Leadership Series. And we invite you to browse our archives of past lectures as well. We look forward to seeing you soon.