- Speaking at the Ellipse near the White House to mark the upcoming 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, President Donald Trump once again claimed to have been carried away from Ground Zero by firefighters in the aftermath of the tragedy.
- Standing beside a piece of structural steel recovered from the fallen Twin Towers, Trump said that two large firefighters physically lifted and carried him away from the U.S. Steel Building when they feared the structure was about to collapse.
- “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,” Trump said. “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.”
- Trump has told the story at least once before, during a January 2016 campaign stop in New Hampshire amid his first run for the presidency. He has also boasted about having sent crews from one of his construction projects to assist in recovery efforts, though no records have ever confirmed this.
- Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at a Pentagon commemoration ceremony on Friday, while Vice President JD Vance will attend the annual World Trade Center memorial service in New York City in his place.
IN FULL
