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By Joe Edwards and Katherine Fung
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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.
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“On that fateful day, savage monsters attacked the very symbols of our civilization,” Trump said. “Yet here in Virginia and in New York and in the skies over Pennsylvania, Americans did not hesitate. 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**.**
“I’ve been to New York many times over the years, and no one ever speaks, it’s a ‘solemn ceremony,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I would love not to speak, because I’m speaking all the time, and this is a day to remember the victims, and their beautiful family members.”
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On Tuesday, Trump spoke at a Steel Across America event near the White House.
“On 9/11, nearly 3,000 precious souls were stolen from us,” he said, adding: “We gather on another Tuesday morning in September to reaffirm the sacred vow we made a quarter of a century ago: we will never forget.”
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During the same remarks, Trump said he took workers to Lower Manhattan after the attacks. “I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened,” he said. 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 grab me under the arms. They literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. 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.
"Well, I'd be taking a very, very tough line," Trump told WWOR. "I mean, you know, most people feel they know at least approximately the group of people that did this and where they are. But boy would you have to take a hard line on this. This just can't be tolerated."
It was also in that interview that he said 40 Wall Street, his building located blocks away from the twin towers, "actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan.
"It was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest—and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it's the tallest," he said.
Alan Marcus, who was working for WWOR that day and would later become a consultant and friend to Trump, chalked those comments up to "Donald being Donald."
"He is the brand manager of Trump, and he is going to tout that brand, and he does it reflexively," Marcus told Politico in 2016. "Even on that day."
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Trump was seen at Ground Zero two days after the attack. A 2001 story from The Washington Post described Trump being at the scene with "every hair in place and impeccably dressed in a black suit, pressed white shirt and red tie, walking into the plaza with his cellular phone to his ear."
That same day, Trump described the scene to a German television station that interviewed him on the outskirts of the site.
"I've never seen anything like it—the devastation, the human life that's been just wasted for no reason whatsoever," Trump said. "It is a terrible scene. It's a terrible sight. But New Yorkers are very strong and resilient, and they'll rebuild quickly."
He went on to say he hired "a couple of hundred" workers to help with the rescue efforts and that his teams would "be involved in some form in helping to reconstruct."
Trump made similar comments to NBC News that same day. Investigations have not found evidence to independently support those claims, but Trump has continued to repeat them in the years that followed.
He also often suggested he was at the center of the cleanup efforts, but no evidence shows he helped clear rubble from the site.
"Everyone who helped clear the rubble—and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit—but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing," Trump said at a 2016 campaign event in Buffalo, New York. "Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn't know what was going to come down on all of us—and they handled it."
Trump repeatedly invoked 9/11 on the campaign trail of his first presidential run. During a Republican primary debate, Trump called Senator Ted Cruz's attacks on "New York values" "a very insulting statement," saying of the attacks, "It was with us for months, the smell, and everybody in the world loved New York, loved New Yorkers."
He also blamed former President George W. Bush for the attacks, telling Jeb Bush during the primaries that, "The World Trade Center came down during your brother's reign. Remember that." He would go on to say that he would have been tougher on terrorism if he were in Bush's shoes and that "[Osama] bin Laden would have been caught a long time ago" if he were the president.
While campaigning in Alabama, Trump claimed that he saw "thousands and thousands" of Muslims cheering for the destruction on September 11, 2001.
"I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down," Trump said at a Birmingham rally. "And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering."
"There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down," he said.
Trump also stirred controversy over a now-deleted tweet that he made in 2013, in which he wrote, "I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: James Rushton and Sam Wilson.
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