President Donald Trump recounted his response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in an interview and event leading up to the 25th anniversary this week, repeating statements that lack evidence about aiding in the recovery.
“I was building a building in New York, and I had a lot of construction workers. And I went down there very shortly thereafter, the following day — couldn’t go down the same day — but the following day,” Trump said in the interview with Fox News’s Trey Gowdy that aired Sept. 6. “Very quickly afterwards. And we worked long and hard.”
In a Sept. 8 event honoring 9/11 emergency responders on the White House Ellipse, Trump said that he was carried by firefighters from the site when the nearby One Liberty Plaza — formerly called the U.S. Steel Building — started to creak, prompting fears of a collapse.
“We thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big strong guys — 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. This is not easy to do,” he said. “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.”
The native New Yorker has told a shorter version of that story before. There are supporting accounts that a fear of the building collapsing prompted evacuations, though none specifically say Trump was there. A history page on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s website says employees were forced to leave the Fed building Sept. 12 because of concerns that the nearby One Liberty Plaza might collapse.
Trump has long talked about his 9/11 response, saying he spent a lot of time at Ground Zero and brought hundreds of workers to aid in the recovery effort. Trump did multiple interviews near the site on Sept. 13, and said at the time he had brought construction workers to help out.
PolitiFact previously found no evidence that Trump brought hundreds of workers to the site, and other fact-checkers have similarly found the evidence lacking. Trump World Tower was under development in 2001 in Midtown Manhattan, about 5 miles from the World Trade Center.
When asked for more information about how much time Trump spent at Ground Zero and how many workers he brought, the White House referred PolitiFact to the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization didn’t return a request for comment.
How involved was Trump in the 9/11 recovery?
The earliest video or photo of Trump near Ground Zero is from Sept. 13, 2001. He gave an interview to a German TV station and spoke with the press on other occasions that day. He said he had workers aiding in recovery.
“I have a lot of men down here right now,” he told German TV station N24. “We have over 100 and we have about 125 coming. So we’ll have a couple hundred people down here. And they’re very brave and what they’re doing is amazing. And we will be involved in some form in helping to reconstruct.”
In another Sept. 13 interview, he said 100 men from his company were working at the site, and he was there “to spur them on.”
The native New Yorker has told a shorter version of that story before. There are supporting accounts that a fear of the building collapsing prompted evacuations, though none specifically say Trump was there. A history page on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s website says employees were forced to leave the Fed building Sept. 12 because of concerns that the nearby One Liberty Plaza might collapse.
Trump has long talked about his 9/11 response, saying he spent a lot of time at Ground Zero and brought hundreds of workers to aid in the recovery effort. Trump did multiple interviews near the site on Sept. 13, and said at the time he had brought construction workers to help out.
PolitiFact previously found no evidence that Trump brought hundreds of workers to the site, and other fact-checkers have similarly found the evidence lacking. Trump World Tower was under development in 2001 in Midtown Manhattan, about 5 miles from the World Trade Center.
When asked for more information about how much time Trump spent at Ground Zero and how many workers he brought, the White House referred PolitiFact to the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization didn’t return a request for comment.
How involved was Trump in the 9/11 recovery?
The earliest video or photo of Trump near Ground Zero is from Sept. 13, 2001. He gave an interview to a German TV station and spoke with the press on other occasions that day. He said he had workers aiding in recovery.
“I have a lot of men down here right now,” he told German TV station N24. “We have over 100 and we have about 125 coming. So we’ll have a couple hundred people down here. And they’re very brave and what they’re doing is amazing. And we will be involved in some form in helping to reconstruct.”
In another Sept. 13 interview, he said 100 men from his company were working at the site, and he was there “to spur them on.”
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here.