President Donald Trump has described being carried to safety by firefighters shortly after the 9/11 attacks, telling a story ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks that two firefighters picked him up near the U.S. Steel Building close to ground zero. Speaking at an event on Tuesday outside the White House, Trump said he was “down there right after this happened” and recalled that the firefighters believed the nearby structure would collapse. He said the men grabbed him under the arm and began running, lifting him because, as he put it, he is “big” and the task was not straightforward. “They literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I’m big,” Trump said. He added that the firefighters told him they needed to get out of the area and that they acted because they thought the building was about to fall. In a separate post on Truth Social after his remarks at the Ellipse, Trump said he had not been at the World Trade Center “on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter”, according to the post. He also said he believed his comments were “exactly accurate”. File photo A White House spokesperson, Davis Ingle, said when asked for clarification on Trump’s timeline and actions after 9/11 that the president was “relaying his experience of a city reeling immediately after and in the days and weeks after the horrific attacks”. Claims Presented as Part of Trump’s 9/11 AccountTrump has told the firefighter story at least once before. He described a similar episode during a January 2016 campaign stop in New Hampshire. The president has also repeatedly spoken about what he saw on 9 September 2001 and what he said he did in the immediate aftermath. Much of what he has described in public has not been independently verified. Trump Says He Watched The Second Plane HitIn remarks that aired in part on Sunday on Fox News, Trump said he watched the second plane strike the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He said he was observing the flight path from his midtown apartment and described the moment as it approached the building. He later added that he went down to ground zero on 12 September 2001, saying he worked “long and hard” with construction workers to help at the site. Trump said he went the following day because it was not possible to access the area on the day of the attacks. He Says He Helped Clear Rubble And Saw People JumpIn April 2016, Trump said at a campaign rally in Buffalo, New York, that he helped clear rubble after the attacks. At the time, he framed his comments around businesses and restaurants that remained open to support first responders and others, saying he had been present and had assisted “a little bit”. In November 2015, Trump said at a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio, that he witnessed people jumping from a window in his apartment during the attack. He said Trump Tower—where he lived at the time—was about four miles from ground zero, and he claimed he had a view aimed at the World Trade Center. Trump also told a local news station in a phone interview on 11 September 2001 that he spoke to someone who said at least 10 people jumped from the twin towers. Cheer Claim Denied By PoliceTrump has also described watching people celebrate as the towers fell, a claim he has linked to Jersey City, New Jersey. At a campaign rally in Alabama on 21 November 2015, he told supporters he saw “thousands and thousands of people” cheering across the river. He repeated a related assertion on ABC’s “This Week” later that year, saying that cheering occurred on the other side of New Jersey and referring to large Arab populations. He said the coverage “tells you something”, adding that the episode was “well covered at the time”. Police in New Jersey, however, debunked rumours at the time about people cheering, and there is no evidence that thousands celebrated after the attack. Join the discussion? 9 September 2026
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