9/11 families accuse Trump of shielding Saudi Arabia at 25th anniversary memorial

Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Twenty-five years later, the families of some of those lost memorialized the tragedy by calling out America’s continued ties to Saudi Arabia.

The families apparently went rogue during an event at the memorial in New York on Friday. At least two individuals excoriated the Trump administration and previous presidencies for obfuscating Saudi Arabia’s connection to the terrorist attack.

Terry Strada's Remarks

Terry Strada, the widow of 9/11 victim Tom Strada and the national chair of 9/11 Families United, rhetorically asked her husband:

"How can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?"

Strada’s remarks elicited spontaneous applause from the audience. (Trump was not in attendance, reportedly because he had been told he was not allowed to speak at the ceremony.)

She continued:

"Yes, we finally made it into a court and have proved that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe and then sent its agents to support the radical Islamists hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones. But, for 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families?"

"They withheld evidence. They vetoed JASTA. They broke promises, both public and private. It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying."

"Tell them that if they want to be friends with the U.S.A., they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have all been suffering through."

Background on Saudi Involvement

• Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who conducted the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were Saudi citizens.
• Evidence that emerged in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of survivors and their families against the Saudi government revealed in 2024 that some low-level Saudi officials were in contact with the hijackers prior to the attack.
• Until that finding, U.S. presidential administrations had largely dismissed Saudi involvement in the attack.
• A FBI-CIA report released in 2005 by the Bush administration said that there was no evidence "the Saudi Government or members of the Saudi royal family knowingly provided support" for what happened that day.

Additional Family Member Speaks Out

The nephew of Lisa Marie Terry, another 9/11 victim, also urged Trump to act:

"For 25 years, the deep state has hidden the truth about what happened that day, 25 years ago. President Trump: you’re our last hope. Release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia while what’s left of the victims’ families are still alive to see it."

Trump's Ties to Saudi Arabia

Trump has done much to further intertwine America’s dependence on Saudi Arabia, perhaps most notably a $1 trillion economic and defense agreement that he signed last year with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Related Coverage

• Trump Falls Asleep Onstage at September 11 Ceremony

Trump's Pentagon Speech

President Trump used his speech at the Pentagon on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks to promote his ill-advised war in the Middle East.

"[W]e salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never, ever, have a nuclear weapon," Trump said to scattered applause.

Trump’s comments came shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also used the 9/11 memorial event to push war with Iran:

"Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism. Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century, that cheered on 9/11."

(Iran officially condemned the attacks.)