You’ve likely seen the grainy photos and the chaotic video clips. In the heat of the 2024 campaign trail, a specific question started circulating online: Why was Donald Trump on the roof? It's a weirdly phrased question, isn't it? If you were watching the news on July 13, 2024, you know the literal answer is that he wasn’t. Donald Trump was on a stage. He was behind a podium, gesturing toward a screen displaying immigration statistics.
But the "roof" has become the central character of that entire afternoon in Butler, Pennsylvania. When people ask this, they’re usually trying to wrap their heads around the sheer impossibility of the security lapse. Or, they're confusing the former President with the man who was actually perched on the shingles 150 yards away.
Let’s get the facts straight.
The rooftop that changed everything
The building in question was the AGR International warehouse. It sat just outside the official security perimeter of the Butler Farm Show grounds. While Trump was speaking to thousands of supporters from the safety of a stage, a 20-year-old named Thomas Matthew Crooks was crawling across the white, sloped roof of that warehouse.
It feels like something out of a bad thriller movie.
A lone gunman.
An AR-15.
A direct line of sight to the most protected man in the country.
So, when the internet asks "why was Donald Trump on the roof," the real query is usually: How was anyone allowed on that roof? ### The "Sloped Roof" excuse
If you want to talk about things that didn't age well, we have to talk about Kimberly Cheatle. At the time, she was the Director of the Secret Service. When she was grilled about why no agents were stationed on top of the AGR building, her answer became an instant lightning rod for criticism.
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She basically said the roof was too sloped.
"That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point," Cheatle told ABC News. "And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof."
Honestly, people didn't buy it. The shooter didn't seem to have much trouble with the pitch of the roof. Neither did the counter-snipers who eventually took him out from a different, also sloped, roof behind the stage. The "safety factor" explanation felt like a weak deflection for what was ultimately a massive breakdown in communication between the Secret Service and local Pennsylvania law enforcement.
A timeline of a disaster
To understand the "roof" mystery, you have to look at the minutes leading up to the shots. This wasn't a sudden, invisible threat. It was a slow-motion train wreck.
- 3:50 p.m. – Crooks flies a drone over the rally site. He’s literally scouting the area while the Secret Service is on-site.
- 5:14 p.m. – A local counter-sniper (who was actually inside the AGR building) sees Crooks on the ground. He takes a photo of him. He sees him with a rangefinder.
- 6:06 p.m. – Crooks scales an air conditioning unit to get onto the roof. He doesn't even use the five-foot ladder he bought earlier that day.
- 6:11 p.m. – The shots ring out.
Trump was mid-sentence when a bullet grazed his right ear. He ducked. Secret Service agents piled on top of him. That iconic image of him pumping his fist with blood on his face happened seconds later.
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Why the confusion exists
There’s a reason people get the "President on the roof" thing mixed up. In the immediate aftermath of any high-stakes event, misinformation spreads like wildfire.
Some early social media posts claimed Trump was "whisked to the roof" for safety. Others saw photos of the Secret Service counter-snipers on the rooftops behind the stage and mistook them for the President or the shooter.
And then there are the conspiracy theories.
In the darker corners of the internet, people tried to claim the whole thing was a staged photo op. They argued that for Trump to be "safe," he would have had to be in on it—meaning he’d know where the shooters were. This led to a garbled narrative where people wondered if he was positioned near the roof on purpose.
Let's be clear: there is zero evidence for that. The FBI, the Secret Service, and multiple bipartisan congressional committees have spent months dissecting this. The "why" isn't a conspiracy. It’s a failure of "interoperability"—a fancy government word for "the radios didn't work together."
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The communication breakdown
The local police were on one radio frequency. The Secret Service was on another.
When a local officer climbed up, saw Crooks, and had a rifle pointed at his face, he dropped back down to the ground. He radioed it in. But that "man with a gun on the roof" alert didn't reach the agents standing next to Trump in time.
It took roughly 30 seconds from the time the "man on the roof" was reported to the time the first shot was fired. In the world of high-level protection, 30 seconds is an eternity.
What we learned (The hard way)
The Butler rally changed how candidates are protected in the U.S. forever. You won't see an "unsecured" roof within 150 yards of a major candidate again.
- Technology Overhaul: The Secret Service has since upgraded its drone detection and radio integration.
- Personnel Changes: Kimberly Cheatle resigned. Multiple agents were placed on administrative leave.
- The "Glass" factor: You’ll now notice Trump and other high-profile figures speaking behind bulletproof glass at outdoor events.
Actionable steps for the curious
If you're still digging into the "why was Donald Trump on the roof" rabbit hole, here is how you can verify the latest findings without getting lost in the noise:
- Read the House Task Force reports. They are public documents and surprisingly readable. They lay out exactly which agency was responsible for which "sector" of the map.
- Watch the synchronized video recreations. Outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post used bystander footage to map out exactly where everyone was standing—and where they weren't.
- Look for "Site Surveys." This is the term for how the Secret Service maps a location. Learning how a site survey should work makes it very clear why the Butler event was such a departure from standard protocol.
The "roof" will likely remain the most studied piece of real estate in modern American political history. Not because Donald Trump was on it, but because the person who was shouldn't have been able to get anywhere near it.