Fact-checking Trump’s stories about his own 9/11 response
PBS News Hour – Politics — 2026-09-08 15:44:00 — www.pbs.org
Trump’s 9/11 Claims Revisited: Fact-Checking His Ground Zero Stories
As the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches, Donald Trump has again recounted his personal involvement in the aftermath, repeating statements that have long been questioned for their accuracy.
Trump’s Ground Zero Narrative
In a recent interview with Fox News’s Trey Gowdy, Trump claimed, “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. Very quickly afterwards. And we worked long and hard.” He reiterated this story at a September 8 event honoring 9/11 emergency responders, describing a dramatic scene in which firefighters carried him away from the site due to fears that One Liberty Plaza might collapse.
Trump has told versions of this story before, often emphasizing his presence and the role of his construction workers at Ground Zero. He has stated, “I have a lot of men down here right now. We have over 100 and we have about 125 coming. So we’ll have a couple hundred people down here.
Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-trumps-stories-about-his-own-9-11-response