Photographer Behind Iconic Trump Image Wins Pulitzer Prize For It
AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Doug Mills of The New York Times received the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography on Monday for his images capturing the July 2024 assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Mills captured now iconic photos at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July of Trump bleeding from the ear.
One of Mills’ images actually caught a bullet passing near Trump’s head as he spoke before he was struck.
Trump was bloodied in numerous images captured by Mills in just a few frantic moments.
The July 13, 2024, incident occurred when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a rooftop approximately 400 feet from q stage where Trump was talking about immigration.
Trump sustained a wound to his right ear as he turned to reference a chart of documented border crossings. Secret Service agents fatally shot Crooks at the scene, and the agency found itself under scrutiny in the weeks and months that followed.
During the attack on Trump, Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief, was killed while shielding his family from the gunfire.
Two other attendees were also injured.
Comperatore was honored by Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who ordered flags at half-staff in his memory.
Trump used stills from the assassination attempt throughout the final months of his campaign, which resulted in him winning all seven battleground states, including Pennsylvania, last November.
The Associated Press reported on Monday’s awards:
The New York Times won four Pulitzer Prizes and the New Yorker three on Monday for journalism in 2024 that touched on topics like the fentanyl crisis, the U.S. military and last summer’s assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.
The Pulitzers’ prestigious public service medal went to ProPublica for the second straight year. Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser, Cassandra Jaramillo and Stacy Kranitz were honored for reporting on pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgent care in states with strict abortion laws.
The Washington Post won for “urgent and illuminating” breaking news coverage of the Trump assassination attempt. The Pultizers honored Ann Telnaes, who quit the Post in January after the news outlet refused to run her editorial cartoon lampooning tech chiefs — including Post owner Jeff Bezos — cozying up to Trump.
