Doug Mills of The New York Times has been awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in the ‘Breaking News Photography’ category for his haunting images of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, this past summer.
Mills was able to capture photographic evidence of a bullet streaking towards Trump a fraction of a second before it pierced his ear.
The Pulitzer Prize board spotlighted the Times photographer’s efforts with his “winning sequence of photos of the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.”
“The photo shows a bullet streaking past Trump’s head, an extraordinary image that captured the precise moment of danger on perhaps the most dramatic day of an extraordinary political year,” the board writes.
This image just won a Pulitzer. pic.twitter.com/zeiMPcicaQ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 5, 2025
The President was the target at the Butler campaign rally in July 2024, where he was shot and wounded. The assassin’s bullet would strike Trump’s ear, coming just centimeters from taking him out and very likely plunging an already profoundly divided nation into civil conflict.
Corey Comperatore, a retired volunteer fire chief, was killed in the assassination attempt as he protected his wife and daughter, and two other men were seriously injured.
Trump would later say the brush with death “changed something” within him, causing him to “feel much more strongly” about God.
The image of a bullet heading towards Trump was one of a series of eight photographs captured by Mills at the Butler tragedy that were nominated in a series for the Pulitzer.
WHCA ‘Photo of the Year’ Encapsulates Everything You Hate About the Media
Mills also had photos in his series depicting the scene afterward, including one of the most iconic images in the history of presidential politics in this country, when Trump rose, face bloodied, and beckoned to his supporters to keep fighting for their country.
“When the agents began evacuating the wounded Trump offstage to safety, he briefly stopped them and insisted on gesturing to the crowd of supporters,” the Pulitzer Prize site reads. “Raising his fist, he defiantly shouted, ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!'”
“It was a moment of instinct that would later be capitalized on by his campaign and embraced by his supporters.”
Mills was also the recipient of an honor at the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner last week, earning the group’s award for “EXCELLENCE IN PRESIDENTIAL NEWS COVERAGE BY VISUAL JOURNALISTS.”
The winning photo was a mundane and dull image of former President Joe Biden in a pose that typified his failed presidency – walking away from the podium, walking away from tough questions, and walking away from the American people.
Left: photo of the year, according to the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Right: photo of the year , according to anyone with a functioning brain cell. pic.twitter.com/jjnp8vLnAi
— Legal Phil (@Legal_Fil) April 28, 2025
Many believe the Photo of the Year belonged to the man who captured the image above of Trump being ushered away by Secret Service while imploring supporters to “Fight!”
Similar to Mills’ Pulitzer-winning image, Evan Vucci, a photographer for the Associated Press (AP), captured something slightly different by prominently displaying the American flag in the background.
Vucci’s image is the one you’ve seen most widely shared on social media. It was used as a cover image for “Time.”
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