Trump's 9/11 Rescue Story Revives a History of False Claims as He Casts Himself at the Centre of the Tragedy

Trump told a room full of first responders to 9/11 that two firemen seized him under the arms and ran with him to safety, reviving a decades-long series of disputed stories about his presence near Ground Zero after the attacks.

The president made the claim on Tuesday 8 September 2026 at the Steel Across America event on the Ellipse organized by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation days before the 25th anniversary of the attacks and attended by around 150 first responders.

He said he had taken his construction crew to Ground Zero right after the towers fell, then described being carried clear as the United States Steel Building, now One Liberty Plaza, groaned above him.

There is no documented evidence that Trump personally took part in recovery work at Ground Zero, and former FDNY officials have said they never saw him there.

The Rescue Story He Told at the Steel Across America Event

Trump began with his workforce. 'I took the whole crew down there right after this happened,' he said, adding that nobody hesitated and that they went down as a large group. He described the scene as raw and unlike anything anyone had seen.

Then came the rescue. Trump said the United States Steel Building was creaking badly and that those present believed it was about to fall. Two firemen, he said, grabbed him under the arms, told him they had to get out, and physically lifted and carried him, at which point he told them he could run himself.

The event honoured Welles Crowther, 24-year-old equities trader and volunteer firefighter known as the Man in the Red Bandana, who saved several people before dying when the South Tower collapsed.

Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously, and his mother Alison and sister Paige accepted it. Trump then turned briefly to his own celebrity, remarking that Crowther had become more famous than he was.

Where Trump Was, and What Firefighters Say

The central problem with the account is geography. CNN's fact-checker Daniel Dale noted that Trump was nowhere near the World Trade Center when the attacks occurred and that there is no public evidence he entered the US Steel Building or was rushed out by firefighters. The network noted that elements of his story may contain truth, that he has told versions of it before, and that he has never produced evidence for any of it.

The framing did the work. Trump did not say when the firemen supposedly lifted him, but by opening with a trip to the site right after the attack he left the impression that it happened on the day, which CNN described as misleading at best.

Firefighters who were there have contradicted him before. Richard Alles, a retired deputy chief with the New York Fire Department, told The New York Times in 2019 that he spent many months at the site and never once saw Trump there, pointing out that Trump was a private citizen and questioning what role he could possibly have played. Trump has also claimed to have sent a crew of 100 workers to help with the clean-up, an assertion that has not held up.

The two firefighters are not new characters in Trump's account. Trump told versions of the same rescue at a 2016 campaign rally and again in a 2021 Newsmax interview, in which he said he heard the building creak, warned first responders it was coming down, and was moved by two big firemen.

From Jersey City to the Rubble: The Claims That Came Before

His first recorded reaction to the attacks concerned real estate. Speaking by telephone to WWOR in Secaucus, New Jersey, on the morning of 11 September 2001, Trump was asked by presenter Rolland Smith whether his building at 40 Wall Street had been damaged. He told WWOR that 40 Wall Street had been the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan and was now the tallest after the World Trade Center fell. That claim was incorrect. Nearby 70 Pine Street was taller.

He did apply for money. Trump also received federal recovery assistance after 9/11, according to contemporary reporting, and later defended accepting the money by saying he had allowed people to stay in and store belongings in the building.

The claims kept coming, as Rolling Stone catalogued this week. In 2005 he told Congress that some people believed the towers would not have burned or 'melted' had asbestos been used more extensively in their construction. In 2013 he tweeted best wishes to everyone, including the haters and losers, on the anniversary.

In 2015 he claimed he watched thousands of people in Jersey City cheering as the towers fell, a claim he invoked while arguing for greater surveillance of Muslims and mosques. However, no evidence of mass celebrations in Jersey City has been found.

Two more followed. At a 2016 debate, Trump blamed George W. Bush for failing to heed CIA advice and questioned how Bush could claim to have kept the country safe. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, blamed Bill Clinton for not killing Osama bin Laden when he had the chance. After boos from the audience, Trump said he had lost 'hundreds of friends' in the attacks.

At an April 2016 campaign rally in Buffalo, he said he had been there, watched the cleanup and 'helped a little bit.'

The Anniversary He Wanted, and the Reporter He Insulted

Even the aftermath became a grievance. In a 2018 interview with Bloomberg, Trump said his own popularity would have been the highest ever recorded were it not for the brief surge in George W. Bush's approval after 9/11, which he referred to as a 'tiny period of time with a bullhorn.'

Signing 9/11 responder health legislation in the Rose Garden in 2019, he told the assembled first responders that he had been down there too, while adding that he was not calling himself a first responder.

This year he wanted the site itself. The New York Times reported in late August that Trump had intended to mark the 25th anniversary at Ground Zero but abandoned the plan because politicians are barred from delivering speeches there. Trump called the report fabricated and attacked its co-author, Maggie Haberman, as unattractive inside and out, referring to her as Maggot Hagerman.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed that morning, and a quarter of a century later the president is still writing himself into the rescue.