At a memorial service
Trump jokes about 9/11 heroes
Updated 09/09/2026 – 06:55 amReading time: 5 minutes
At a memorial event, Donald Trump jokes about a 9/11 hero. He had previously caused astonishment with a personal episode.
At an event marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday in WashingtonDC a highly acclaimed speech. The US President spoke to first responders, relatives of the fallen and members of charitable foundations about the consequences of the Islamist attack on the World Trade Center. The 80-year-old also drew attention to himself. And what those present heard caused astonishment.
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Because Trump also included a personal episode in his historical review of the events of that time. “The embers smoldered in the rubble for three months, and the helpers worked on the site day and night for nine months,” he said. “I would also like to thank my own people. We had a huge construction project going on at the time new York and I took the entire staff to go there (to Ground Zero). Nobody hesitated, everyone came with me,” said Trump.
In previous interviews, Trump had claimed to have spent a lot of time at Ground Zero and to have deployed hundreds of his workers to help with the rescue and clean-up work. In fact, the former real estate entrepreneur was running such a project at the time of the attacks, but the Trump World Tower, which was under construction, was located around eight kilometers from the site of the attacks, according to PolitiFact fact-checkers.
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Immediately after the terrorist attacks, the current president gave an interview to the German TV station N24 (now WELT) in which he spoke about personally encouraging his employees to carry out relief work. But to date, PolitiFact fact-checkers have not been able to find a single piece of evidence to support this claim. The investigative journalists who contributed to the in Florida Based research institution Poynter Institute sent a corresponding request to the White House and the Trump Organization – without receiving a response. Previous fact-checks by other journalists had also failed to find any evidence for Trump’s claim.
In his speech on Tuesday, Trump reiterated the narrative. After briefly mentioning the countless heroes among the firefighters, paramedics and volunteers, he suddenly segued into his own heroic story. He found himself in great danger when he stood with his people on the site of One Liberty Plaza (the former US Steel Building). The building was directly across from the World Trade Center.
