Donald Trump is pushing back forcefully against renewed scrutiny of a personal account he shared about being near Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks, rejecting claims that the story is fabricated.
Speaking Tuesday at the White House during an event honoring first responders, the President recalled going to Lower Manhattan not long after terrorists struck the Twin Towers. In his remarks, he said firefighters helped pull him from a building he described as unstable.
The account immediately drew criticism from political opponents and media figures. California Governor Gavin Newsom called it a “lie,” Rachel Maddow described the claim as “dubious,” and social media users accused Trump of inventing or exaggerating the episode.
Trump responded on Truth Social, taking particular aim at New York Magazine after the outlet published a piece accusing him of telling a “weird lie about where he was on 9/11.”
“The Failing New York Magazine wrote a story that I wasn’t down at the World Trade Center after the Tragedy of September 11th, because nobody saw me there,” Trump wrote late Tuesday night.
“Well, I don’t think I would be the first thing on anyone’s mind but, I was there, obviously not on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter, with a large group of Construction Workers,” he added.
Trump has previously said he watched the 9/11 attacks unfold from Trump Tower in Manhattan. What happened afterward, however, has long been the subject of dispute among critics, fact-checkers and some news reports.
In interviews from that period, Trump claimed he sent or brought 100 construction workers to assist at Ground Zero. But his latest recollection—that firefighters pulled him from a nearby damaged building—has intensified backlash from opponents on the left, who say the story strains credibility.
Donald Trump has pushed back on those questioning his story about being pulled out of a dangerous building by firemen near Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks
Trump at the 9/11 memorial in Manhattan in 2024. The President will give remarks at the Pentagon on Friday. Vice President JD Vance will attend the New York ceremony
Trump refuted the attacks by posting numerous interviews he did in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, telling similar stories of shaky, unstable buildings and how they needed to be constantly evacuated
‘I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened,’ Trump said, elaborating on his past claims that he brought a construction crew down to Ground Zero in the aftermath.
‘The United States Steel Building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down … We thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen – big, strong guys, and I’m not the smallest guy in the world – they grabbed me under the arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here!’ And they literally lifted me up.’
He joked that this was no easy feat because ‘I’m big,’ but in the end the building ‘didn’t come down.’
But his new story about being pulled from a nearby building by firemen has raised eyebrows.
He fired off a nearly 500-word salvo aimed at New York Magazine and the New York Times for questioning his recollection, noting that ‘everything I saw was exactly accurate.’
In it, he claimed his former head of security, Matthew Calamari, had attested numerous times to the validity of the story ‘to many different journalists, but it’s a story that just won’t die.’
His statement veered into complaints about coverage from the Times about his 9/11 memorial schedule, and how he is not attending the ceremony at the Manhattan memorial.
Trump will deliver remarks from the Pentagon on Friday
The report claimed that Trump’s remarks at the Pentagon memorial were decided after the President was denied an opportunity to speak at the New York service.
Trump has denied the allegation and reiterated in his post late on Tuesday that no politicians are allowed to speak at the annual ceremony.
‘I have been to the New York solemn ceremony numerous times, and nobody speaks,’ he wrote. ‘Certainly I would not want to violate that, even if I could.’
‘Again, speeches are not made at the New York event and, even if they were, I never asked to speak. Fake News is getting worse and worse in the U.S.A.’
He demanded retractions from New York Magazine and the New York Times for their reporting on his 9/11 speech plans.
Trump then went on to post numerous videos of news coverage he was involved in from the time of the 2001 attacks.
The clips show a younger Trump giving interviews and remarking on how unstable and dangerous the buildings are near Ground Zero.
He also notes in one of the old news reports how evacuations from the damaged structures were common for those repairing and inspecting them.
‘It’s very dangerous because every few minutes a whistle will go off, and everyone will just run because you have all the buildings around it that are in such a weakened state that people just don’t know,’ Trump told NBC News in a 2001 interview he reposted.
