Doug Mills Wins Pulitzer Prize For Photo Freezing Bullet’s Path Near Trump’s Head

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Doug Mills, a veteran photographer for The New York Times, has received one of journalism’s highest honors—the Pulitzer Prize—for his extraordinary photojournalism during the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump. The recognition comes in large part due to a single, now-iconic image that froze the precise moment a bullet streaked past Trump’s head at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

 

 

The image captured the surreal and terrifying split second during which a bullet passed perilously close to the president as he spoke to a crowd. Mills was stationed below the stage with a wide-angle lens when the shots rang out, unaware in that moment that he had just documented a piece of history in motion.

 

“I just happened to be down, shooting with a wide-angle lens just below the president when he was speaking. There was a huge flag waving right above his head, and I just happened to be taking pictures at the same time,” Mills recalled during an interview with Fox News at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “Then, when I heard the pops, I guess I kept hitting on the shutter, and then I saw him reach for his [ear]. He grimaced and grabbed his hand and looked. It was blood, and then he went down, and I thought, 'Dear God, he's been shot.'"

 

Following the chaos, Mills was quickly taken to a tent for safety and began transmitting his photos to The Times newsroom. At first, the most striking image seemed to be one of Trump pumping his fist defiantly in the air while being escorted offstage by Secret Service agents. But as Mills reviewed his camera roll, he realized he might have captured something even more extraordinary.

 

"I was like, ‘Oh, hell. I remember taking pictures of him when this happened. Let me go back and look,’” he said. “I started looking at it. I started sending them right away, and I called one of the editors and said, ‘Please look at these really closely. This might have been near the moment where he was shot.’”

 

The revelation came moments later. “She called me back like five minutes later and said, 'You won't believe this.' She goes, ‘We actually see a bullet flying behind his head,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’”

 

The image—frozen in time by a Sony a1 camera—quickly circulated worldwide, becoming a defining visual of the shocking attempt on the president’s life and a testament to the power of photojournalism to capture history as it unfolds.

 

Doug Mills’ Pulitzer was part of a strong showing for The New York Times, which earned three additional awards for coverage of Sudan, Afghanistan, and Baltimore. As media reporter Katie Robertson noted, “Doug Mills of The New York Times won the breaking news photography prize for his photos capturing the attempted assassination of President Trump last year, including an image in which a bullet can be seen.”

 

Through a lens, Mills recorded not just an attack, but a moment that symbolized resilience and danger in modern American politics. His work now stands among the most memorable in Pulitzer history.

 

  Adpated by ASEAN Now from USA Today  2025-05-10