A quarter-century after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States is preparing to remember the nearly 3,000 people killed. For President Donald Trump, the anniversary also draws renewed attention to his history of public comments about the attacks, including solemn tributes, recollections of what he witnessed and claims about his actions at Ground Zero that have faced questions. On September 11, 2025, Trump addressed a remembrance ceremony at the Pentagon, where he described the attacks as a confrontation with “pure evil” and renewed the promise that the victims would not be forgotten.
They stood on their feet, and they showed the world that we will never yield, we will never bend, we will never give up, and our great American flag will never, ever fail.” He concluded with a warning to potential attackers: “If you attack the United States of America, we will hunt you down and we will find you…We will crush you without mercy, and we will triumph without question.” Ahead of the 25th anniversary in 2026, Trump in late August disputed a report that he had decided to attend the Pentagon ceremony instead of the commemoration at Ground Zero because officials would not allow him to speak. Trump then described what he said was an incident near the building now known as One Liberty Plaza, saying two firefighters carried him away because they feared it might collapse. They literally lifted me up.
They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said, 'Fellas, I can run myself.' But they were amazing. But they thought it was coming down,” Trump said.
That same day, Trump responded on Truth Social to scrutiny of his account. He clarified that he was “obviously not” at the World Trade Center on the day the towers collapsed, but said he went there “shortly thereafter, with a large group of Construction Workers.” Trump added: “Everything I said was exactly accurate.” Trump was in New York City on the day of the attack, at his home in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where he watched the events unfold first on TV and then from the window. "I saw the whole thing," Trump told Howard Stern in 2002 on the first anniversary of 9/11.
"I mean, specifically, I have two windows that are focused on the building." He would also describe what he witnessed at a 2015 campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio, telling the audience, "I have a window in my apartment that specifically was aimed at the World Trade Center, because of the beauty of the whole downtown Manhattan. And I watched as people jumped, and I watched the second plane come in. Many people jumped, and I witnessed that.
I watched that." But his first comments on the attacks were years before that. Hours after terrorists sent two hijacked planes into the twin towers, Trump did a live phone interview on local television. Trump, who had toyed with a presidential bid in 2000, was asked what he'd been doing if he'd run and won the White House.
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