“I was building a big building in New York and I took my whole crew down there after this happened, and they had no hesitation. Everyone went down with me. We went down as a big group of people,” said President Donald Trump Tuesday on the White House Ellipse during an event honoring first responders of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks as part of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s Steel Across America tour.
Trump, who first made a name for himself as a real estate mogul, was referring to Trump World Tower, an apartment building that was completed in 2001, after the World Trade Center towers fell during the attack. Trump World Tower is located in Midtown Manhattan, near the United Nations Headquarters, and it is around 5 miles away from where the twin towers once stood.
“There wasn’t too much we could do, to be honest,” Trump continued. “It was raw, nobody had seen anything like it, ever. 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 creaked. It still creaks. But, eh, it never came down.”
That building is now called One Liberty Plaza. It’s just a quick walk away from One World Trade Center and the memorial pools recognizing the 2,753 victims of the terrorist attack.
“I’ll never forget – two firemen – we thought it was coming down on top of us,” said Trump of the building “And two firemen… big strong guys – and I’m not the smallest guy in the world – they literally lifted me up. That’s not easy to do, I’m big! They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said ‘fellas, I can run myself,’ but they were amazing.”
However, several outlets have disputed this account, including PolitiFact, The New York Times and New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, which called his narrative a “weird lie.” In response, Trump slammed that last outlet in a Truth Social post.
“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,” said the president. “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.”
WASHINGTON - JULY 21: Donald Trump, president of the Trump Organization, displays a picture of the New York City skyline showing his Trump World Tower (R) near the United Nations as he testifies before the Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security Subcommittee Capitol Hill July 21, 2005 in Washington, DC. The hearing was held on the topic of "U.S. Financial Involvement in Renovation of UN Headquarters."Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesNew York Magazine noted that CNN’s Daniel Dale took to X to point out that “President Trump was not in the vicinity of the World Trade Center when it was hit. He was in Trump Tower, miles away from the towers and nearby One Liberty Plaza, which is/was also known as the US Steel building.” Dale also said that Trump himself said the incident happened a few days after Sept. 11 when he told the story on the campaign trail in 2016, though Dale argued that Trump’s most recent telling seemed to imply it happened on the day of the attack.
“PolitiFact previously found no evidence that Trump brought hundreds of workers to the site, and other fact-checkers have similarly found the evidence lacking,” said PolitiFact Tuesday. The outlet also said that when it reached out to the White House for more information about how much time Trump spent at Ground Zero and how many workers he brought, it referred PolitiFact to the Trump Organization, which didn’t return a request for comment.
In 2019, USA Today reported that “Trump has made several versions of this claim in the past but there is a lack of evidence that Trump helped or hired people to help on the days following the terrorist attack.” It also said that Richard Alles, the New York Fire Department battalion chief during the Sept. 11 attack, “has repeatedly said that he does not remember Trump having a presence at ground zero.”
“In 2019, the New York Times dug into a claim the president made while signing a bill to fully fund the medical care of 9/11 first responders,” New York Magazine also said.
Amid questions about his 9/11 account, Trump shared videos of himself being interviewed about the attacks on Truth Social, and in one he tells reporters that he was “just down” to ground zero. Another where Trump tells NBC News that he brought workers to the site is allegedly from Sept. 13, 2001, one poster said. Trump also told a German outlet that he had been at ground zero that day, according to this video.
Trump also phoned in to WWOR-TV in Secaucus, N.J., to discuss the attacks back in September 2001, per this video shared by POLITICO. He described seeing the twin towers from Trump Tower, located around 5 miles from the WTC in what looks like a nearly straight line on a map.
“Everything I said was exactly accurate and, to prove the point, I am attaching clips of me there with numerous of my people, including my then Head of Security, Matthew Calamari, who has confirmed that very sad trip to Lower Manhattan, many times, to many different Journalists, but it’s a story that just won’t die,” Trump said on Truth Social.
