President Trump has already attracted immense controversy when starting last month it became clear he is planning to hold Sept. 11 observances at the Pentagon, which was also struck. He's not planning to attend the more traditional ceremony and venue in Manhattan for the 25th anniversary of 9/11 in part because he wants to deliver a speech, says the NY Times; however, the event organizers have long barred remarks, seeking to keep it non-political and non-partisan.
"The president’s interest in speaking on Sept. 11 was conveyed to memorial planners in recent weeks, three of the people with knowledge of the events said. But since 2012, politicians have been barred from speaking at the site," the report details. "The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, has worked rigorously to keep the venue nonpartisan and focused on the solemnity of the day."
"Mr. Trump, a native New Yorker who talked often about the Sept. 11 attacks during his 2016 presidential campaign, is now expected to commemorate them at the Pentagon, two of the people with knowledge of the events said," NYT continues. Vice President JD Vance is expected to represent the administration in New York. On Tuesday, President Trump just issued remarks sure to spark fierce controversy once again. Widespread reports have long documented that he was miles away from Ground Zero on that fateful day, but now he's using language as if he was a victim or barely escaped, or as if he was so close to the action and tragedy akin to a first responder. In the below he seems to confusedly switch between settings - as is often his style - going from talking about his own claimed rescue efforts with a crew of responders, to then narrating a dramatic tale of "running" from the site as it was feared a building could come down on them. Watch:
ABC writes of the Tuesday venue where Trump spoke: "The event at the Ellipse was spearheaded by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and showcased a massive, 21-foot, nearly 17,000-pound steel beam recovered from the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York, which had traveled for months across the country as part of the Steel Across America tour."
Trump 'recalled'. at the Tuesday ceremony: "The United States Steel Building [the former US Steel building, now known as 1 Liberty Plaza] was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down. The truth is, it creaked a lot. It creaked."
The president continued: "And I'll never forget two firemen. 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."
"This is 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. But they thought it was coming down. It didn't come down," he added. He may have even been talking about his own office and building(?), but the ambiguous account is made to sound like he's 'running' from Ground Zero.
The NY Times has underscored further that he left the impression he had been right at Ground Zero:
On Tuesday, though, Mr. Trump left the impression that he had been at the site in the immediate aftermath. “I’ve never seen such an unbelievable mass of steel and, unfortunately, bodies and everything you can imagine,” Mr. Trump told the crowd, which had gathered to pay tribute to the police officers and firefighters who had been killed in the attack, including a stock trader and volunteer firefighter named Welles Crowther, whom Mr. Trump posthumously awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
According to more background via the Times:
This was the latest in Mr. Trump’s evolving — and often disputed — account of his actions on Sept. 11 and in its aftermath, when he was working as a real estate developer in New York City.
Mr. Trump was watching television the morning of the attacks, which is verifiable from news coverage of that day, but what he did next has long been a matter of debate. He has repeatedly said that he took a construction crew with him to Lower Manhattan and was deeply involved in cleaning up the site, a claim that has been called into question by at least one former fire official who was involved in the recovery effort.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump renewed his claim that he had taken a crew to a building near the site where the World Trade Center had stood shortly after the attacks. He said that two large firefighters picked him up and took him to safety when he observed an unstable building.
...Reminds us of Hillary Clinton's infamous 'escape from Bosnia' under fire:
This isn't the first time he has given such a story: "News accounts from that time put Trump about 4 miles from ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001, and footage shows him blocks away on Sept. 13, 2001, and Sept. 18, 2001," one investigation reviewed of prior claims. "None of those images or reports show him amid fire and ashes. And there is no record he was directly involved with first responders at the scene or that he sent hundreds of workers to aid the recovery. When asked, Trump has not provided evidence to corroborate the claims."
People have been chiming in all day, providing their own personal anecdotes contradicting Trump...
That Trump's tale was issued before a solemn 9/11 remembrance event is all the more shocking - and as an aside, is certainly no help to Republicans going into an already tough midterm election in November.