Trump Snubs Ground Zero 9/11 Ceremony After Reportedly Being Denied Chance To Address Crowd

Donald Trump will stay away from this year's 25th anniversary ceremony at New York's 9/11 memorial after being told he would not be allowed to address mourners at Ground Zero, reports said.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has barred speeches by elected officials at its annual commemoration since 2012, a policy intended to keep the event 'free of politics' and centred on victims' families. Politicians may attend, but they do not take the microphone.

The New York Times reported that Trump's team had carried out advance visits to the Manhattan site, and that his interest in speaking from the Ground Zero podium had been relayed to event organisers in recent weeks.

Sources as quoted by NYT said the request ran up against rules that have shaped the tightly choreographed ceremony for more than a decade, in which relatives read victims' names and officials stand in the audience rather than at a lectern.

Trump To Mark 9/11 at the Pentagon

According to people familiar with internal White House discussions, Trump, 80, will instead mark the anniversary at the Pentagon, one of the other sites targeted on 11 September 2001. The attacks killed 2,996 people, including the 19 hijackers, across New York, Washington and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.

The president is expected to travel to Washington after attending a Republican midterms convention in Dallas on 9 and 10 September. The Times said officials may also work a tribute to 9/11 victims into the Dallas event, a prospect likely to draw scrutiny over the blending of commemoration with campaigning.

Vice-President JD Vance is expected to represent the administration in New York instead. This year's ceremony will include six moments of silence, marking the times both World Trade Centre towers were struck and collapsed, the Pentagon attack and the crash of Flight 93, alongside the traditional reading of victims' names by family members.

Trump last attended the Ground Zero ceremony in 2024 alongside then-President Joe Biden, then-Vice President Kamala Harris and Vance. No formal speeches were delivered on that occasion, in keeping with the memorial's rules.

Memorial Stresses Presidents 'Always Welcome'

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum did not comment directly on Trump's change of plans, but told the New York Post that presidents of both parties remained welcome at the site.

'For more than a decade, the ceremony at Ground Zero has featured only family members solemnly reading the names of their loved ones,' it said, adding that elected officials had 'borne witness' to the occasion over the years and that 'every living President, including President Trump, has attended'.

Travel arrangements may also be a factor. Trump is due to fly to his golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland, on 12 September for the Irish Open, which runs from 10 to 13 September. The Times noted that departing from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, rather than the New York area, would make the transatlantic journey more straightforward. The White House and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum were contacted for comment.

The development adds to Trump's long-running and disputed commentary on 9/11. In March, he repeated a claim that he had 'predicted' Osama bin Laden would attack the World Trade Centre and had urged action against him a year before the attacks. A CNN fact-check of his 2000 book found only a single reference to bin Laden, with no warning of an imminent strike.