Trump Makes Insane 9/11 Claim — Pretends To Have Been One of the Heroes
In perhaps his most insulting lie to date, the president says he had to be rescued by firefighters from the rubble of Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of the attacks
As America gathers this week to remember the victims of 9/11 and commemorate the heroism of first responders on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, President Trump has manufactured one of his most insulting lies on record — fictitiously placing himself in the middle of Ground Zero in the aftermath of the Twin Towers’ collapse.
In a meandering and demented speech delivered to 9/11 heroes during a ceremony at the White House Ellipse, Trump said he had to be lifted and carried away from the rubble of the World Trade Center by firemen, fearing that another creaking building was going to collapse on top of them.
“I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened, and they had no hesitation; everybody went down with me,” he claimed. “We had other buildings. The United States Steel Building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down. The truth is, it creaked a lot; it still creaks.”
“I’ll never forget, two firemen — they thought it was coming down on top of us — big, strong guys, and I’m not the smallest guy in the world, they grabbed me under the arms and said ‘gotta get out of here,’ and they literally lifted me up. They lifted me up and started running with me.”
In reality, the president is on record for having observed the 9/11 attacks from his apartment at Trump Tower — located roughly 4 miles away from the World Trade Center. Moreover, Trump’s own family disputes the story that he supervised construction work in 2001, and fact-checkers have been unable to find any record of Trump-hired contractors participating in the immediate rescue and cleanup operations.
Donald Trump was not among the heroes during the attacks or the immediate aftermath. He did, however, make numerous media appearances — including a phone interview in which he incorrectly boasted that he now owned the tallest building in lower Manhattan and lamented the closure of the stock exchange.
His first documented visit to Ground Zero instead occurred on September 13, two days after the attacks. He was pictured wearing a pristine suit and tie, with no evidence of having been in any danger or having to be rescued by firefighters — although he did repeat the unverified claim of being accompanied by 100+ construction workers with “more on the way.”
One Liberty Plaza, formerly the US Steel Building, which Trump says ‘still creaks’ and was believed to be at risk of collapsing during his visit, remained structurally sound and was successfully reopened in October just six weeks after the attacks.
Furthermore, Richard Alles, a retired NYFD official who served as a battalion chief during the attacks, told reporters back in 2019 that if the president had truly sent hundreds of workers to the site and personally assisted in the cleanup, the real rescuers would have had some memory or record of it — of which they do not.
“There would be a record of it,” he told PolitiFact in 2019. “Everybody worked under direct supervision of the police and fire department and the joint commander for emergency services.”
“Is there a chance he was ever down there by himself and I didn’t know it? It’s possible, but I know of no one who ever witnessed him there.”
Trump has told thousands of (if not more) unforgivable lies throughout the years, but placing himself among the first responders of 9/11 and pretending to have been at the heart of the rescue and cleanup operations — when he was actually observing the disaster from the safety of his private residence several miles away — marks a new low even by his standards.
But that, unfortunately, is exactly what he always does. From 2001 all the way to the present, Donald Trump can’t help but make himself the center of attention, even when it is least deserved.
Thankfully, however, New York City’s current leadership, under the direction of Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is marking the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in a far more substantive and thoughtful way.
Namely, the city is finally releasing over 170,000 pages of previously sealed records documenting the response to the attacks and their aftermath — particularly concerning public knowledge of the health hazards faced by survivors, first responders, cleanup workers, and anyone living in the immediate area. The Mamdani administration hopes the release of these records will help the families of those affected claim the financial compensation they need and deserve from various government programs.
Thanks to city leadership, many of those who have struggled with lasting health complications for the last 25 years will finally be able to win some measure of relief.
Survivor advocates, including comedian Jon Stewart, have called the move long overdue, arguing that the city has for too long prioritized limiting its legal liability over protecting the health of its citizens.
“There was poison in the air, and on the ground, and in the window sills,” Stewart said. “Everyone knew.”
“For too long, New Yorkers have had to fight for access to records that should have been available to them in the first place,” the Mayor said. “This [records portal] is part of our administration’s enduring commitment to honor those we lost, care for those living with lasting health consequences, and give thousands of New Yorkers the answer they’ve been looking for.”
“The Mamdani Administration’s creation of a 9/11 health portal is a long-overdue step in providing transparency and accountability for these heroic Americans and their families who have endured decades of needless frustration and suffering due to government stonewalling,” added Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal. “I urge New York State and the federal government to follow suit.
This is how you properly honor the courage, heroism, and sacrifices of those who were at Ground Zero on that fateful day and in the following months and years of cleanup. Instead of making up a fake self-aggrandizing story about where you were 25 years ago, you could instead be taking meaningful steps to improve the lives of those who remain affected by the tragedy to this day.
The president’s unthinkable lie is another reminder that for his entire life, he’s been nothing more than a performance artist — and not a particularly good one at that.
This Friday, remember to thank one of the real heroes.
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