Everything Donald Trump Has Said About 9/11

The anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks is a difficult day for any New Yorker, but this year, it will also be politically challenging for one New York native. An expert spoke to Newsweek about how the presidential candidates should address that fateful day.

Former President Donald Trump will return to Ground Zero on Wednesday, his first appearance at the site since 2015. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and President Joe Biden are also set to visit the World Trade Center site in New York City to memorialize the attacks. According to The Hill, Trump is also scheduled to visit a fire station in New York City, and then he will travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for a Flight 93 memorial.

Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.

Unlike his opponent, Trump has had a much longer history with September 11. He was in New York City on the day of the attack, at his home in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where he watched the events unfold first on TV and then from the window.

“I saw the whole thing,” Trump told Howard Stern on the first anniversary of 9/11.”I mean, specifically, I have two windows that are focused on the building.”

He would also describe what he witnessed at a 2015 campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio, telling the audience, “I have a window in my apartment that specifically was aimed at the World Trade Center, because of the beauty of the whole downtown Manhattan. And I watched as people jumped, and I watched the second plane come in. Many people jumped, and I witnessed that. I watched that.”

But his first comments on the attacks were years before that. Hours after terrorists sent two hijacked planes into the Twin Towers, Trump agreed to do a live phone interview on local television.

Trump, who had toyed with the idea of a presidential bid in 2000, was asked what he’d been doing had he run and won the White House.

“Well, I’d be taking a very, very tough line,” Trump told WWOR. “I mean, you know, most people feel they know at least approximately the group of people that did this and where they are. But boy would you have to take a hard line on this. This just can’t be tolerated.”

It was also in that interview that he said 40 Wall Street—his building located blocks away from the Twin Towers—”actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan.

“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 said.

Alan Marcus, who was working for WWOR that day and would later become a consultant and friend to Trump, chalked those comments up to “Donald being Donald.”

“He is the brand manager of Trump, and he is going to tout that brand, and he does it reflexively,” Marcus told Politico in 2016. “Even on that day.”

Trump was seen at Ground Zero two days after the attack. A 2001 story from The Washington Post described Trump being at the scene with “every hair in place and impeccably dressed in a black suit, pressed white shirt and red tie, walking into the plaza with his cellular phone to his ear.”

That same day, Trump described the scene to a German television station which interviewed him on the outskirts of the site.

“I’ve never seen anything like it—the devastation, the human life that’s been just wasted for no reason whatsoever,” Trump said. “It is a terrible scene. It’s a terrible sight. But New Yorkers are very strong and resilient, and they’ll rebuild quickly.”

He would go on to say that he hired “a couple of hundred” workers to help with the rescue efforts and that his teams would “be involved in some form in helping to reconstruct.” Trump made similar comments to NBC News that same day. Investigations have not found evidence that independently supported those claims, but Trump has continued to repeat them in the years that would follow.

He would also often suggest that he was at the center of the cleanup efforts, but there’s been no evidence that he helped clear rubble from the site.

“Everyone who helped clear the rubble—and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit—but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing,” Trump said at a 2016 campaign event in Buffalo. “Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn’t know what was going to come down on all of us—and they handled it.”

Trump repeatedly invoked 9/11 the campaign trail of his first presidential campaign. During a Republican primary debate, Trump called Senator Ted Cruz‘s attacks on “New York values” “a very insulting statement,” saying of the attacks, “It was with us for months, the smell, and everybody in the world loved New York, loved New Yorkers.”

He also blamed former President George W. Bush for the attacks, telling Jeb Bush during the primaries that, “The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign. Remember that.” He would go on to say that he would have been tougher on terrorism if he were in Bush’s shoes and that “Bin Laden would have been caught a long time ago” if he were the president.

And Trump’s comments have not been without controversy. While campaigning in Alabama, Trump claimed that he saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims cheering for the destruction on September 11, 2001.

“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down,” Trump said at a Birmingham rally. “And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”

“There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down,” he said.

Trump also stirred controversy over a now-deleted tweet that he made in 2013, in which he wrote, “I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.”

“Trump has said many controversial things about 9/11, as well as demeaning and disparaging comments about military personnel and the intelligence community,” James Forest, the director of security studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, told Newsweek. “It seems very unlikely we would ever hear him apologizing for those things, and even less likely that he would say anything that could redeem himself in light of those comments.”

Forest added that it would be wise for both Trump and Harris to honor the sacrifices made by the military and the security improvements that the intelligence community and law enforcement has made.

“Messaging is always important for political campaigns,” Forest said. “Both candidates should strike a somber tone regarding the 9/11 victims, families and lessons learned—as well as respecting and reflecting on the enormous costs our nation has paid to pursue those responsible for the attacks.”

Yet, some don’t think Trump needs to deviate much from what he’s said in the past.

“Trump is the kind of person who benefits politically when American citizens are alarmed,” international security expert Max Abrahms told Newsweek. “The more Americans are afraid of the Islamic state, the better his political fortunes.”

“Perceptions of threat plays to Trump’s advantage,” he said.

Because the anniversary of the terror attacks comes a day after the first debate between Trump and Harris, Robert Y. Shapiro, a political science professor at Columbia University, told Newsweek both candidates “should just pay their respects to the victims and move on the campaign the next day.”

“Any showboating would not be received well as I see it,” Shapiro said.