Trump's 9/11 'memories' draw scrutiny — what the fire department says

At memorial ceremony, Trump claims two firefighters carried him to safety — but no evidence supports the account

The New York Times and fact-checkers find claims unsubstantiated; former FDNY deputy chief says he never saw Trump at the scene

Past claims about Muslim celebrations and advance warning of bin Laden also contradict the record

President Donald Trump speaks at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in Washington on Friday. [Reuters]

As the United States marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks — the deadliest disaster in the nation's history — President Donald Trump is again drawing controversy over claims he has made about the tragedy. Over the years, Trump has repeatedly revisited his own account of that day, often in ways that have been found to be exaggerated or at odds with the facts.

At a ceremony called "Steel Across America" held at the Ellipse near the White House on Friday, Trump recalled the attacks, saying, "It felt like the building was going to come down on us, and two big, strong firefighters grabbed me under my arms and said, 'We've got to get out of here.'" The New York Times reported the account.

Trump added that "they literally picked me up and started running," saying, "I said, 'I can run myself.'"

He also said that at the time of the attacks he had been at a construction site in New York and, after the planes struck, led construction workers down toward the World Trade Center. "The US Steel Building was creaking badly, and we thought it was going to come down," he said, describing the scene as extremely dangerous.

The New York Times said no evidence has been found to support Trump's claim that two firefighters carried him to safety at the scene.

'Brought workers to the site,' 'my building became the tallest' — most claims don't hold up

President Donald Trump speaks at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in Washington on Friday. [Getty Images]

Trump has repeatedly claimed over the years that he took part in rescue operations at the scene after the Sept. 11 attacks — most notably that he brought construction workers to Lower Manhattan to help with the cleanup.

Some people who worked at the recovery site at the time have questioned that account.

Richard Alles, a former deputy chief of the New York City Fire Department, told The New York Times in a 2019 interview that "I was there for months and I never saw Trump — not once. He was a civilian at the time, and I'm not sure what role he could have played."

Trump's earlier statements have also been inconsistent in both timing and substance. In a 2016 campaign video, he said he visited One Liberty Plaza — the former US Steel Building — with construction workers "a few days after the WTC collapsed." Yet at this year's memorial ceremony, he described going to the scene immediately after the attacks.

Trump's remarks on the day of the attacks have also drawn repeated criticism. On Sept. 11, 2001, in a phone interview with a television network, he said his building at 40 Wall Street had become the tallest in Lower Manhattan after the collapse of the World Trade Center. The Guardian noted, however, that 70 Pine Street — about a block away — was in fact taller than 40 Wall Street at the time, making the claim inaccurate.

A photograph of Trump taken Sept. 18, 2001, later spread online alongside claims that he had brought hundreds of workers to Ground Zero in Manhattan to help search for victims.

Timothy O'Brien, a former Bloomberg Opinion editor and author of "TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald," said the Trump Organization "probably didn't have that many workers it could have sent to the site."

Barbara Res, who served as executive vice president for construction at the Trump Organization through the late 1990s, said "If Trump had actually been at the scene and had even been helped out by firefighters and first responders, it would have been on the front page of The New York Times the next day — he's someone who would have made sure of that."

'Muslims cheered the attacks,' 'I warned about bin Laden' — all disputed

President Donald Trump speaks at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in Washington on Friday. [AP]

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump claimed that "thousands and thousands" of Muslim Americans in Jersey City, New Jersey, cheered as they watched the Sept. 11 attacks unfold.

Fact-checkers at The Washington Post, FactCheck.org and PolitiFact all investigated the claim and found no evidence to support it.

In September 2019, Trump reshared a video purportedly showing Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim, dancing on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Trump added the caption: "The new face of the Democrat Party!"

CBS News reported, however, that the video was not filmed on Sept. 11 and showed Omar dancing at an event hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus.

Trump has also argued, in effect, that he predicted the Sept. 11 attacks, pointing to a mention of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in his book "The America We Deserve," published in 2000. In a 2018 post on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: "The United States should have gotten Osama bin Laden much sooner. I pointed him out in my book just before the attack on the World Trade Center."

The Guardian pushed back on that framing, noting that "bin Laden was already a widely known figure in American society at the time" and that "al-Qaeda had carried out the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania years before the Sept. 11 attacks."

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