Trump's Claims About 9/11 Involvement Contradicted by Witnesses and Facts

President Donald Trump has routinely tried to put himself in the middle of the story of New York City’s recovery after September 11, 2001 — despite no evidence showing he was at Ground Zero in the wake of the terror attacks or marshaled resources to support relief efforts.

The president has repeatedly claimed that he visited the World Trade Center site and worked closely with first responders, who say they never saw him on the ground. Yet the president continues to insert himself into the narrative each year the nation approaches the anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

In an appearance on Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy on Fox News, the president said he witnessed the second plane crash into the Twin Towers and then “worked hard” on construction in the city one day later. “This thing was coming right into the second building. And I watched that happen. And I said, ‘wow, we are now in a different time,’” he said.

“I was building a building in New York and I had a lot of construction workers, and I went there very shortly thereafter, the following day, you couldn’t go down the same day, but, like, the following, very, very quickly afterwards,” Trump told Gowdy. “We worked long and hard but it was just so terrible and so hopeless. It was so hopeless. Such a terrible thing.”

The president is not expected to attend New York City’s memorial commemorating the 25th anniversary of the attacks. All four living former presidents are expected to attend.

“People can say what they want about New York but they rebuilt that project so fast it was so incredible to see,” Trump told Gowdy.

“Just the removal of the debris, this was like a mountain,” he said. “These were massive buildings. And they came straight down. And just massive. And it was done so quickly. And the job was approved. And the job went up, the new one, the new World Trade Center, and it was amazing. Within a relatively short period of time, you had a new building up, gleaming and glistening, and I don’t think New York had gotten enough credit for that.”

The Independent has requested comment from the White House about the president’s remarks.

On the day of the attack, Trump had called into WWOR-TV, saying that a window at his Trump Tower looked directly over the World Trade Center.

During a wide-ranging live phone interview aired over footage of the burning towers, Trump claimed he had “somebody down there” who witnessed at least 10 people jumping from the buildings, then falsely claimed that one of his properties is now the “tallest” in lower Manhattan.

“40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan 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,” Trump said. “And now it’s the tallest.”

Speaking to reporters in New York two days after the attacks, Trump said, “I’ve got 100 men working down here” and was visiting them to show them his support.

“I was just down to Ground Zero. Ground Zero is a disaster,” he said.

Richard Alles, a former deputy chief with the New York Fire Department, who arrived at Ground Zero within 20 minutes of the attack and spent months at the site, told The New York Times he “never witnessed” Trump there.

“I have no knowledge of his being down there,” Alles told Politifact.

“Everybody worked under direct supervision of the police and fire department and the joint commander for emergency services,” he added. “Is there a chance he was ever down there by himself and I didn’t know it? It’s possible, but I know of no one who ever witnessed him there.”

While speaking on the campaign trail in Ohio in 2015, Trump said “many people jumped and I witnessed it, I watched that.”

“I have a view — a view in my apartment that was specifically aimed at the World Trade Center,” he claimed at the time. “And I watched those people jump and I watched the second plane hit … I saw the second plane hit the building and I said, ‘Wow that’s unbelievable.’”

The towers were more than four miles away from Trump’s building at 725 Fifth Avenue.

In 2016, Trump said he helped with clearing the rubble.

“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 at a campaign rally in Buffalo, New York. “Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn’t know what was going to come down on all of us — and they handled it.”

In remarks at the White House Rose Garden in 2019, Trump said: “Many of those affected were firefighters, police officers and other first responders. And I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.”

Later that year, in remarks at the Pentagon, where a hijacked airliner crashed and killed 184 onboard, Trump claimed he witnessed the attacks while looking out a window from a building in midtown Manhattan.

“When I saw a second plane, at a tremendous speed, go into the second tower,” he said. “Soon after, I went down to Ground Zero with men who worked for me to try to help in any little way that we could.”