Trump assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, has chilling ties to George Washington, first president

An important figure in American history once narrowly escaped with his life after an assassination attempt in western Pennsylvania – but it wasn't former President Donald J. Trump.

George Washington, just 21 years old when it happened, was a major in the British Army.

The year was 1753. 

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The United States did not yet exist — and young Washington was traveling from Virginia to western Pennsylvania.

His goal? Preventing war. 

A monument in Evans City, Pennsylvania, recounts the assassination attempt on George Washington's life in Dec. 1753.  (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital )

Washington "was on his way to go up to Fort Le Boeuf, which would be close to Erie," Jack Cohen, president of Butler County Tourism and board member of the 1753 George Washington Trail, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview this week.

There, he would meet with French troops "to see if he could stop the French and Indian War," Cohen said. 

Washington had been tasked with delivering a letter from Virginia Gov. Robert Dinwiddie, requesting that the French leave the area. 

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But the French balked at the thought of leaving the area — and a full-blown war would begin about six months after Washington visited Fort Le Boeuf. 

Yet even before that, on Dec. 27, 1753, Washington and his guide, a surveyor named Christopher Gist, were following the Venango Indian Trail on their way back to Virginia when they stopped for the night at Connoquenessing Creek in Pennsylvania, Cohen relayed. 

The attempt on Washington's life is memorialized by artist Deac Mong in this 2007 painting called "The First Shot." The painting is hanging in the Butler County Courthouse.  (Deac Mong)

George Washington, shown in this portrait painting by Constable-Hamilton, 1794, went on to serve as president of the United States from 1789 to 1797.  (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

There, the two befriended an "Indian guide" who said he would help them through the wilderness, he said.

As it turns out, the "Indian guide" was allied with the French troops — and was not pleased to see Washington.

The man "loaded his musket and shot at Washington and just missed him."

The man "loaded his musket and shot at Washington and just missed him," Cohen said of the chilling murder attempt. 

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"They were going to chase him down and Gist said, 'Let him go.' And so they let him go, and they went on their way the next morning." 

Nearly 300 years after the brazen attempt on Washington's life, the event is chronicled by two markers in what is now Evans City, Pennsylvania – which is close to the Butler Farm Show location where Trump almost lost his life recently. 

Evans City, where George Washington, founding father, was nearly killed, is about six miles away from the Butler Farm Show — where former President Donald Trump was nearly killed on July 13, 2024.  (Deac Mong; Google Earth; AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Washington's would-be assassin, the markers note, was "less than 15 paces from him" when the gunman fired the shot. 

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Today, Cohen and the other board members are trying to get Washington's historic route recognized by the National Parks Service as a National Historic Trail. 

There are concerted efforts by many to get the route through Pennsylvania that Washington took in 1753 recognized as a National Historic Trail by the National Parks Service. Above, part of the trail.  (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital )

"It should be a national trail knowing that George Washington could have been killed here," he told Fox News Digital. 

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"That happened right here in Butler County." 

A general view of the trail on which George Washington, founding father, escaped an assassination attempt in present-day Evans City, Pennsylvania on Friday, July 26, 2024. The site of the shooting is about six miles from the Butler Farm Show — where Trump survived an assassination attempt. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital )

In president-day Evans City, Pennsylvania, George Washington — later the first president of the United States — escaped an assassination attempt when he was 21 years old. The site of the shooting is approximately six miles from the Butler Farm Show. The above photo was taken on July 26, 2024.   (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital )

On July 13, 2024 — more than 270 years after Washington escaped an assassination attempt, just six miles away from his campsite in Butler County — former President Trump, too, was spared death as a bullet grazed his right ear. 

The similarities between the two events were not lost on Cohen.

Former President Donald Trump suffered a gunshot wound to his right ear from a would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.  (Alex Brandon)

The attempt on Washington's life was "pretty much like what we just had," he told Fox News Digital, referring to what happened to Trump.

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"Isn't that crazy?" said Cohen.