Provoked with Darryl Cooper and Scott Horton

EP:49 - The Trump Assassination Plots, with Ken Silva

June 7, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

On July 13, 2024, a 20-year-old named Thomas Crooks climbed onto the roof of a one-story building in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fired eight shots at Donald Trump from 130 yards away. A bullet grazed Trump’s ear—a nick so superficial it left no scar—while one man in the crowd was killed and two others were wounded. The event has become a Rorschach test: for some, a miracle; for others, a staged operation; for journalist Ken Silva, the subject of his book The Trump Assassination Plots, it is a case study in catastrophic security failure, bureaucratic stonewalling, and the murky world of FBI entrapment operations.

The Swiss Cheese of Butler

Silva describes the security breakdown at the Butler rally using the analogy of holes in Swiss cheese lining up. The first hole appeared early in the afternoon: a counter-drone specialist could not get his equipment to work. He spent hours troubleshooting, finally swapping an Ethernet cable at 4:00 PM. The system came online at 4:15 PM—roughly fifteen minutes after Crooks had flown his drone over the site. The second hole: the AGR building Crooks used as a perch was left outside the Secret Service perimeter despite offering a clear line of sight to the stage. The Secret Service had planned to block that sightline with farm equipment, but the equipment never arrived, and no one took initiative. The third hole: a local cop spotted Crooks w

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Advertisements** - Two pre-show ads for StreetEasy and AutoTrader.
2 (01:04) **Show Introduction** - Scott Horton and Darryl Cooper introduce the show and guest Ken Silva.
3 (03:05) **The "Swiss Cheese" Theory of Butler** - Scott introduces the concept of multiple failures leading to the assassination attempt.
4 (06:40) **The Mysterious ATF Agent** - Ken discusses the presence of an unexplained ATF agent at the rally.
5 (09:18) **The Chronology of the Butler Shooting** - Ken walks through the timeline of Crooks's movements and the law enforcement response.
6 (14:58) **The Secret Service Sniper Scandal** - Ken details the controversial response of the Secret Service counter-sniper.
7 (18:34) **The "Sloped Roof" Excuse and the Primary Failure** - Darryl asks for the single most critical failure that allowed Crooks to get into position.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Ken Silva joins Darryl Cooper and Scott Horton to discuss his new book on the Trump assassination plots, especially the Butler, Pennsylvania attempt and the later Palm Beach attempt. Discussion focuses on security failures at Butler, including equipment problems, communication gaps, missed warnings about Thomas Crooks, and questions about an unidentified ATF agent and the timing of the shooting. Silva also discussed Crooks’ background, the limited release of FBI and congressional records, and his view that the official account does not fully match the available notes and testimony. The second half of the conversation covers Ryan Routh’s attempt on Trump in Florida, and the interview closes with Silva saying the alleged Iranian plots involving Asif Merchant and Farhad Shakeri do not appear to be direct, operational government attacks.

Chapters:

0:36 Welcome & Intro to the Trump Assassination Plots

3:36 Butler Security Failures

6:01 The Mystery ATF Agent

8:40 Crooks’ Timeline at Butler

14:22 Sniper Delay Under Fire

20:43 The Ear Shot Debate

27:00 Autopsy and Toxicology Doubts

30:30 Who Was Thomas Crooks?

38:59 Silence from Trump

42:54 Ryan Ruth’s Radical Path

48:35 A Tip-Off in Florida