As the United States prepares for annual September 11 remembrance events, two overlapping political controversies have erupted, centered on conflicting reactions to two figures’ involvement in this week’s memorial activities. While Republican leaders have rushed to condemn New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s planned attendance at 9/11 commemorations solely on the basis of his Muslim faith, former U.S. President Donald Trump has ignited widespread public fury after repeating a deeply dubious, seemingly invented account of personal heroism during the 2001 terrorist attack aftermath.
Trump shared the elaborate tale during an appearance Tuesday before an audience that included more than 100 first responders. He claimed that shortly after the attack, he traveled to Ground Zero and brought a crew of his own construction workers to assist in recovery efforts. According to Trump’s account, he found himself in danger when the U.S. Steel Building (now renamed One Liberty Plaza), which was widely feared at the time could collapse, began to creak heavily. He recalled that two large firefighters, convinced the structure was about to fall, grabbed him under the arms, lifted him off the ground, and carried him to safety, despite his protest that he could run on his own. “This is not easy to do. I’m big,” Trump added of the anecdote.
This is not the first time Trump has shared variations of this story; he first told a version of the claim during his 2016 presidential campaign, and has repeatedly asserted he was on site at Ground Zero in the immediate hours after the attack. But nearly every detail of the new account contradicts public records and testimony from first responders who actually led recovery operations at Ground Zero.
Trump’s own words from the day of the attack undermine his current claims. On September 11, 2001, he told WWOR-TV he was watching the attack unfold from his Trump Tower office, located four miles from the World Trade Center, and infamously and incorrectly boasted that he now owned the tallest building in lower Manhattan after the twin towers collapsed. While documentation confirms he was a few blocks from Ground Zero on September 13, 2001, his long-running claims that he deployed 100 construction workers to the site and personally assisted in recovery efforts have been repeatedly debunked.
In 2019, Richard Alles, a New York City Fire Department battalion chief who arrived on scene just 20 minutes after the second tower collapsed and spent months working on recovery, told fact-checking outlet PolitiFact he had never heard of any Trump construction crew assisting at Ground Zero. “I was there for several months—I have no knowledge of his being down there,” Alles said. He added that all recovery work was directly overseen by police, fire, and emergency command, and a crew of 100 workers would have left a clear paper and on-site record. No record of such a deployment has ever emerged.
Neither of the two firefighters who supposedly carried Trump to safety has ever publicly confirmed the incident, which Trump also never mentioned in any interviews in the weeks and years immediately after the attack. Outlets including The Associated Press and The Washington Post have repeatedly requested evidence to back up Trump’s 9/11 claims, and have never received a response.
This fabricated anecdote is far from Trump’s first false claim related to the 9/11 attacks. He has previously falsely claimed he saw thousands of Muslim residents in Jersey City cheering as the towers fell, and that he personally predicted the attack in one of his books. He also misled the public about his charitable giving to 9/11 victims: he publicly pledged $10,000 to a 2001 recovery fund that the New York City comptroller later confirmed was never donated, and only gave $100,000 to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum more than 15 years after the attack. A 2016 New York Daily News investigation also found that Trump’s business empire received $150,000 in post-9/11 disaster relief meant for affected businesses, claiming the funds for lost rent, cleanup, and repairs despite his later assertion the money was compensation for letting victims shelter in his 40 Wall Street property.
Journalist Ron Filipkowski, who first highlighted the latest false anecdote, framed the story as a new instance of what he calls Trump’s “stolen valor,” noting he was stunned by the level of detail in the invented tale. “I know he’s lied about his non-role in 9/11 rescue and recovery before, but never this level of detail,” Filipkowski said. “Trump could have made the ceremony with 9/11 first responders today about the many heroes who died attempting to rescue people and others who risked their lives and long-term health. But instead, he created a fictitious event featuring himself, who did nothing, as the hero of 9/11.”
Critics have also highlighted a glaring double standard at play among Republican leaders, who have expressed public outrage over Mamdani’s planned attendance at Friday’s memorial events. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is among the top Republicans criticizing Mamdani’s participation, solely because of the mayor’s Muslim faith. Observers have pointed out that the same figures who claim offense at Mamdani’s involvement have remained silent on Trump’s fabricated story.
“The people mad about the Mayor of New York attending the 9/11 event must be ENRAGED that Trump just lied about being at ground zero on 9/11,” Tim Fullerton, a former digital strategist for the Obama administration, wrote on X. “This is all about honoring the victims and not just to score points. Right???”
The controversy comes as Mamdani this week released roughly 170,000 pages of public records showing that Giuliani’s mayoral administration deliberately misled New Yorkers about the severity of toxic air quality near Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attack, a decision that exposed thousands of first responders and recovery workers to dangerous long-term health risks.