President Donald Trump has raised eyebrows after appearing to stumble while giving remarks to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Speaking at the Pentagon on Friday, Trump, 80, said, “We will always remember the victims and families of September 11th,” before pausing for almost 3 seconds and then citing the year in an unusual manner, “twenty-O-one.”
“Very famous date, unfortunately,” he finished.
Trump was speaking at the Pentagon after reportedly being told he would not be allowed to speak at the New York City memorial, where a long-standing policy bars remarks.
He has denied that he asked to speak, posting on Truth Social that the report was “corrupt news.”
“I’ve been to New York many times over the years, and no one ever speaks, it’s a ‘solemn ceremony!’” he said.
“I would love not to speak, because I’m speaking all the time, and this is a day to remember the victims, and their beautiful family members,” he continued.
Speeches have been banned at the New York service since 2012, a move made by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum to maintain a non-partisan event.
Trump last attended the New York ceremony in 2024 while running for re-election.
A native New Yorker, Trump was in the city on the day of the attacks and has made a number of claims about his experience over the years.
Earlier this week, he added a dubious new claim to his personal 9/11 narrative, saying he’d been rescued by firefighters outside a building a few yards from the Twin Towers that was at risk of collapse. He claimed that as they lifted him up to rush him to safety, one of them told him, “Got to get out of here!”
In 2002, he told radio host Howard Stern that he “saw the whole thing” from Trump Tower in Midtown.
“I mean, specifically, I have two windows that are focused on the building.”
After watching the attacks unfold, Trump did a live phone interview with a local radio station and used it to point out that his own building was now the tallest in the city.
“It was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest—and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it’s the tallest,” he told WWOR.
The White House shrugged off the issue.
“The Daily Beast is really grasping at straws to find something to complain about on the anniversary of 9/11. Shameful,” White House Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.
