USA09 September, 20263 min read
Donald Trump Honors Sept. 11 Victims at Washington Ellipse, Vows 'Never Forget'
Trump honored 9/11 victims at the Ellipse and vowed to never forget. He said two firefighters carried him to safety near Ground Zero after the attacks.
29 outlets told this the same way.
Outlets did split on United States Approves US$1 Billion Arms Sale To United Arab Emirates →
Ellipse Ceremony and Tributes
President Donald Trump honored victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks at the Ellipse outside the White House, vowing to “never forget.”
The ceremony was led by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and featured a massive 21-foot, nearly 17,000-pound steel beam recovered from the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York.
Trump said, “This battered piece of steel here today on the Ellipse is a reminder that America is blessed with a strength no fire can consume, no evil can conquer and no terror can destroy,” and he said the week of commemorations would culminate in events on Friday including one at the Pentagon that he will attend.
Trump also praised Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, saying, “He’s done an amazing job,” and he said Lutnick “lost his younger brother, Gary, as well as more than 650 employees” in the attacks.
In attendance were about 150 first responders from New York, as well as some from Washington and Pennsylvania, and Trump said the steel beam would make its way through New York in a procession on Friday retracing the steps of firefighter Stephen Siller.
Firefighters Claim Fact-Check
Trump’s remarks at the Steel Across America event near the White House included a claim that he was carried away by firefighters amid fears of an imminent building collapse at some point after the attack. CNN reported that Trump’s story was challenged because “He was miles away from the World Trade Center on 9/11 and was not whisked out of any building near Ground Zero that day.” The White House said in an unsigned Tuesday email, “He was a private citizen at the time, not everything he did was documented,” and spokesperson Davis Ingle said the president was relaying his experience of a city reeling immediately after the attacks.
Trump also posted on social media that “everything I said was exactly accurate,” as CNN described the account as misleading at best. In the same fact-check, CNN said Trump didn’t specify when the firemen supposedly helped him, but by beginning the story by saying he went to Ground Zero “right after this happened,” he left open the impression he was whisked to safety on the day of the attack.
Debate, Security Message, and Fallout
Beyond the ceremony, Trump’s 9/11 remarks sparked debate in the United States after he recounted details of being rescued by two firefighters near the World Trade Center site. Akhir Akhbar described Trump’s account as claiming that two firefighters physically carried him off the ground near the adjacent US Steel building, and it said Trump stated on the Truth Social platform that he was not at the World Trade Center site on the day of the collapse itself but was there shortly afterward with a crew of construction workers. In a separate account, Billie Parker Noticias said Trump promised to use “all its power” to prevent another 9/11, and it quoted him saying, “No one could even imagine that something like this could happen again, and we are going to use all our power to make sure it doesn’t.”
The same Billie Parker Noticias report said the 9/11 attacks were carried out by 19 members of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, which hijacked four commercial airplanes, and it said nearly 3,000 people died. As the commemorations continued, the ABC News report said Trump’s presence at the Ellipse began a week of commemorations culminating on Friday with events including one at the Pentagon that Trump will attend, while the steel beam would travel across New York in a procession on Friday.