EVEN ON 9/11, TRUMP MADE THE STORY ABOUT HIMSELF
Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, millions of Americans are remembering the nearly 3,000 people who were killed and the families and first responders whose lives were changed forever.
But during remarks commemorating the anniversary, Donald Trump repeatedly brought the focus back to his own experience.
He spoke about the fact that he was “building a big building in New York” at the time and said he took his construction crew down to Ground Zero shortly after the attacks. He then recounted a story about two firefighters who, according to Trump, physically helped him get away from an unsafe building.
Those comments came just days before the 25th anniversary, as Trump was speaking about the legacy of the attacks and the people who responded to them.
There is an important distinction here: Trump did also honor the victims and first responders in his official remarks. At the Pentagon ceremony on September 11, he remembered the 2,977 people killed and spoke about honoring their families and memories.
But his decision to repeatedly recount his own experience became part of the broader debate over how public figures should speak about a tragedy that belongs first and foremost to the victims, survivors, families and first responders.
Twenty-five years later, the central story of 9/11 remains the nearly 3,000 people who never came home — and the millions whose lives were forever changed.
