Trump claims firefighters carried him from Ground Zero on 9/11; fact-checkers rebut

President Donald Trump arrives to speak during the Tunnel to Towers Foundation event on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

President Trump participated in the Tunnel to Towers Foundation's Steel Across America tour on Tuesday, delivering remarks from the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., in honor of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

While Trump honored first responders and the nearly 3,000 victims of the attacks, he also used his speech to offer another questionable anecdote about his whereabouts and actions in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Trump's Account

The president told the assembled crowd that he had been working on a "big building" when the attacks took place and that he took the entire construction crew down to ground zero "right after this happened." He claimed that two firefighters rushed him to safety out of concern that the nearby U.S. Steel Building—now known as One Liberty Plaza—was at risk of collapse. Trump said the building was "creaking" at the time.

"I'll never forget. Two firemen — we thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big strong guys — and I'm not the smallest guy in the world — they grabbed me under the arms and said, 'Gotta get out of here.' And they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I'm big. They lifted me up and started running with me. I said, 'Fellas, I can run myself.' But they were amazing."

Fact-Checkers Push Back

CNN's Daniel Dale, known for extensive fact-checking during Trump's time in office, quickly rebutted the president's claims:

"President Trump was not in the vicinity of the World Trade Center when it was hit. He was in Trump Tower, miles away from the towers and nearby One Liberty Plaza, which is/was also known as the US Steel building."

Dale also noted inconsistencies with Trump's previous versions of the story:

• During the 2016 campaign, Trump said the alleged incident happened "a couple of days" after 9/11
• In 2016, he claimed the creaky building was "not so far from us," rather than leaving the impression he might have been inside it on 9/11 itself

PolitiFact noted that while there were concerns at the time that One Liberty Plaza might collapse, Trump was not mentioned in recollections about it. Trump also appears to have told a version of this story during a 2021 Newsmax interview, calling it a "scary situation."

History of Embellished Claims

This is far from the first time Trump has seemed to embellish his post-9/11 actions.

2019 Rose Garden Event

In 2019, the New York Times investigated a claim Trump made while signing a bill to fully fund medical care for 9/11 first responders. During the Rose Garden event, Trump reportedly said:

"Many of those affected were firefighters, police officers and other first responders. And I was down there also, but I'm not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you."

Richard Alles, a retired New York Fire Department deputy chief, told the Times he personally never saw Trump at the Twin Towers site:

"I spent many months there myself, and I never witnessed him. He was a private citizen at the time. I don't know what kind of role he could have possibly played."

2001 German Interview

In an interview Trump gave to a German outlet two days after the attacks, he claimed he had 100 men working at the ground zero site, with another 125 planned to join them. USA Today has previously fact-checked these claims.