President Donald Trump has frequently recounted stories about his actions and observations during and after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that remain unverified or contradicted by the public record. During a White House event held on Tuesday to honor first responders, the President shared an account in which he claimed to have been physically carried away by firefighters due to concerns that a nearby building was on the verge of collapse. While the President has shared variations of this narrative in the past, he has yet to provide any evidence to substantiate the claim, and several components of his recent account are demonstrably misleading.
When asked for clarification or evidence regarding these events, the White House did not provide documentation. In an unsigned email response, the administration stated, “He was a private citizen at the time, not everything he did was documented.” Later that day, spokesperson Davis Ingle addressed the matter by criticizing media coverage, asserting that the President was simply recounting his experience of a city in crisis. Ingle described the media’s focus on these claims as a “disgrace” and suggested it contributed to declining public trust in news organizations.
The President’s narrative implies he was present at Ground Zero shortly after the attacks occurred. However, historical records confirm he was miles away at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan when the planes struck the World Trade Center. A former executive from the Trump Organization noted in 2016 that the President’s activities on that day were not particularly extraordinary. Although he suggested in his Tuesday remarks that he was at the site “right after this happened,” he has previously claimed in 2016 that the incident involving the firefighters occurred a couple of days later.
Regarding his claim that he was inside the US Steel building—now known as One Liberty Plaza—when it appeared unstable, there is no public evidence to support his presence there in the days following the attacks. While it is true that there was widespread panic and temporary evacuations of One Liberty Plaza on September 12 and September 14, 2001, due to structural concerns, no evidence links the President to those specific events. In a 2001 interview with NBC, the President did describe the general atmosphere of fear and the frequent evacuations of workers at the site, but he did not claim to be among those running for safety.
The President also claimed that the building “creaked a lot” and that “it still creaks,” a statement for which there is no factual basis. One Liberty Plaza was deemed structurally sound by city officials and reopened in October 2001, less than two months after the tragedy, and it continues to function as a normal office building today.
Furthermore, the President’s recent remarks included a nod to “my people,” which alluded to his past claims of having sent a crew of 100 workers to assist with rescue and recovery efforts. These claims have been consistently challenged by those who were on the scene. Richard Alles, a retired New York Fire Department battalion chief who was present on 9/11, stated in 2019 that he never witnessed the President at the site during his own months of service. Alles noted that all recovery work was conducted under the direct supervision of the police and fire departments, and that such a large crew would have been documented in official records.
While news accounts from the days following the attacks did reference the President giving high-fives to police officers and volunteers near the site, these reports do not support his claims of active participation in the rescue or being swept up in emergency evacuations. As the 25th anniversary of the attacks nears, these recurring, unverified stories continue to diverge from the documented history of the event. The report also notes that president Donald Trump has for years told false or unproven stories about what he supposedly saw and did on 9/11 and soon after. The report also notes that versions of which he has told before, but he hasn’t provided any evidence for it, it’s possible there are elements of truth in Trump’s latest story. The report also notes that “President Trump spent the morning paying tribute to the heroic first responders who laid down their lives in service to others in the September 11th attacks and honoring their incredible families. The report also notes that the President was relaying his experience of a city reeling immediately after and in the days and weeks after the horrific attacks — and the fact that the failing legacy media is using this to try to attack him is a disgrace and yet another reason why Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low,” Ingle said.