WATCH: Top 22 Times Trump Was Awful or Inappropriate or Just Plain Lying About 9/11

Tommy ChristopherSep 13th, 2025, 2:01 pm
 

Former President Donald Trump has a very long history of being crass, lying, or otherwise being inappropriate about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a history that stretches all the way back to just hours after they began.

Here are 20 more of those occasions, many of which may be new to you, in roughly chronological order.

Tallest Building … or not.

Trump got off to a quick start, bragging on 9/11/2001 that since the Twin Towers had been destroyed hours earlier, he now owned the tallest building in the area.

“Forty Wall Street actually was the second tallest building in downtown Manhattan,” Trump said, adding “and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest, and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second tallest. And now it’s the tallest.”

As ghastly as that boast was, it was also — shockingly — not true.

“I’d fly into that!”

During an appearance on The Howard Stern Show on September 11, 2002, Trump marked the first anniversary of the attacks by joking with Howard Stern about replacing the World Trade Center with a statue of then-girlfriend Melania Knauss.

“Maybe we should build a television tower there,” Trump suggested during the interview.

“Believe me, a statue of your girlfriend would be perfect right there,” Stern quipped.

“Well, that would be an idea,” an amused Trump replied.

Stern and co-host Robin Quivers joked that no one would fly into a statue of Melania.

As the group laughed at that idea, a Stern intern added: “I’d like to fly into that!”

“Muslim Problem”

Trump’s hatred of Muslims was evident long before his presidential campaign, as in this March 31, 2011 interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. Asked if there is “a Muslim problem in the world,” Trump made a super-racist contrast.

“I don’t notice Swedish people knocking down the World Trade Center. There certainly is,” Trump told O’Reilly.

“Haters and Losers”

In 2013, Trump marked the anniversary by extending “best wishes” to all the “haters and losers.”

Imaginary Cheering Muslim Lie

During his presidential campaign, as part of a relentless campaign against Muslims, claimed to have seen “thousands and thousands” of people from “areas with large Arab populations” in New Jersey cheering when the Twin Towers were destroyed on 9/11, an utterly false claim.

I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.

“Do you know the power that gives me?”

Trump also has a habit of using the attacks of 9/11 as a way to brag about his own television ratings, as he did in a 2016 campaign speech in Iowa.

“‘Face the Nation’ put out a release last week that they had, their interview with Donald Trump, long interview, from Florida, that it was the highest-rated show they’ve had in 15 or 16 years, since the fall of the World Trade Center,” Trump told the crowd. “Highest-rated show!”

The press release did not, in fact, reference the attacks of 9/11.

Or when he told another crowd, in Myrtle Beach, the same factoid, and asked: “Do you know the power that gives me?”

Never Forget 7-Eleven

At a 2016 rally in Buffalo, Trump misstated the site of the attacks for a popular convenience store.

“I wrote this out, and it’s very close to my heart — because I was down there, and I watched our police and our firemen down on 7-Eleven, down at the World Trade Center, right after it came down, and I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action,” Trump said.

“I Helped a Little Bit”

During the same rally in Buffalo, Trump also claimed, without evidence, to have helped clear the rubble at Ground Zero following the attacks.

“Everyone who helped clear the rubble — and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit — but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing,” Trump said.

Fist Pump!

In 2018, Trump skipped the traditional moment of silence on the White House lawn to observe the anniversary in Shanksville, PA, and greeted supporters at the airport with a poignant double-fist-pump and lip-bite.

He also marked the anniversary that year by chirpily tweeting “17 years since September 11th!”

I’m Not a First Responder, But…

In July of 2019, Trump modestly declared himself not a first responder, rejecting a title no one had given him.

“I was down there also,” Trump said during a bill-signing ceremony in the Rose Garden. “But I’m not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.”

“Tiny Period of Time with a Bullhorn”

In a 2018 interview with Bloomberg News, Trump bitterly complained about 9/11 as an obstacle to his own historic popularity with Republicans.

I am actually a very popular president, which people don’t like to say, you know. In fact, I guess the Republican poll came out, there’s one at 92 and one at 93 and one at 90, and they’re the highest numbers that have ever been, with the exception of a tiny period of time with a bullhorn.

But that period lasted for about a week.

RSVP Taliban

Trump decided to invite the Taliban — which harbored the terrorists who carried out the attacks — to come to Camp David just days before the 18th anniversary of those attacks, only to cancel on them at the last minute. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that this was Trump’s idea.

Never Forget … The Fake Polls

In 2019, Trump marked the day, in part, by ranting about negative polls.

Osama bin Laden Was a One-Hit Wonder

Just a little over a year ago, Trump tried to brag that he killed much bigger terrorists than bin Laden, and told Hugh Hewitt that “Osama bin Laden had one hit, and it was a bad one, in New York City, the World Trade Center.”

He made a similar remark to Sean Hannity.

Last Year’s Trifecta

On the 20th anniversary, Trump had a very busy day. First, in the morning he released a 104-second video that spent about 20 seconds commemorating 9/11, and the rest of it attacking Joe Biden.

Then, he released a chirpy statement of  “congratulations” to Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City when the attacks occurred:

Congratulations to Rudy Giuliani (for the 20th time!), the greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, for having shown such leadership and doing such an incredible job during and after the attack on our Nation!

And even after taking tremendous heat for agreeing to provide commentary for a gimmick boxing match on the anniversary, Trump went through with it anyway.

Loomer Looms

In 2024, then-candidate Trump went to a 9/11 memorial with a noted 9/11 conspiracy theorist — Laura Loomer — along for the ride.

Laura Loomer arrives with Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump for a visit to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Company in Shanksville, Pa., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Never Forget — To Brag

Finally, this year, Trump dropped a tone-deaf aside about how he’s made America a “hot country” again into his memorial speech.

That’s it for now — until next year.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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