WASHINGTON — President Trump observed Friday’s 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at a ceremony at the Pentagon by commemorating the lives lost when al Qaeda militants hijacked planes and killed nearly 3,000 people in three locations and upended American foreign policy and national security.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump listened as the names of the 184 people killed at the Pentagon that day were read aloud, a bell tolling between each. In his remarks, Trump recounted the stories of several of the victims and insisted that the moment has led to a fortification of American resolve.
“We will never, ever forget,” Trump said. “That’s why we fight today. We don’t have a choice.”
Earlier, in a downpour at daybreak, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and top military officials stood outside and watched as a giant American flag was unfurled on the building struck by one of those planes a quarter-century ago.
It was the second year in a row that Trump observed the day at the Pentagon. The president, who is originally from New York, last attended the ground zero ceremony there in 2024.
Vice President JD Vance attended the New York observance alongside former presidents, while other administration officials took part in the ceremony in Shanksville, Pa. Vance had planned to be in New York for the anniversary last year but instead flew to Salt Lake City to be with the family of Charlie Kirk after the conservative activist was assassinated.
Widow calls on Trump to reconsider relations with Saudis
At one point during the solemn remembrance in New York City, a woman whose husband died in the attacks criticized Saudi Arabia and called on the Trump administration to rethink the United States’ tight relationship with the kingdom.
Terry Strada, who lost her husband Tom Strada on 9/11, called on Trump to “tell the Saudis to stop lying” and accused U.S. presidents of choosing “to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families.”
Strada, who was one of the 9/11 family members who read aloud the names of victims at this year’s remembrance, added that the current administration should “stand with the families, stand with the survivors.”
“It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that,” she said before calling on Vance to “carry that message back” to Washington.
Strada is part of a group of family members of 9/11 victims embroiled in a long-running lawsuit against the Saudis. They allege a group of extremist religious leaders in Saudi Arabia gained influence in the Saudi government and aided the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, but the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks.
Trump and Hegseth try to bridge 9/11 and Iran war
Trump began his remarks by recalling the sense of American unity following the attacks. “In those harrowing days after the attacks, we saw the authentic spirit of our nation,” Trump said. “We were all New Yorkers that day. Every one of us. We were all New Yorkers. We were all family.”
The president and his defense secretary sought to connect the events of 9/11 to the war with Iran. Trump saluted the service members “working right now to ensure the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror — the Islamic Republic of Iran — will never, ever have a nuclear weapon.”
Hegseth used the moment to make the case that the U.S. military had “laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism” with the war against Iran.
“Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century, that cheered on 9/11, a regime that has sponsored terrorist attacks against Americans for decades, killing thousands, including our comrades in Iraq, in Afghanistan,” Hegseth added.
Officials wonder if 9/11 could have been thwarted
At Friday’s commemorations, there was also a measure of reflection about whether 9/11, the deadliest attack on the U.S., could have been prevented.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin at a ceremony at his agency’s headquarters said it was a moment to consider the success of his department, which was stood up following the attacks and has “prevented it from happening again.”
Still, Mullin noted that Osama bin Laden, architect of the attacks, had fired “warning shots” in the years prior to 9/11 about his intent to carry out a major strike on the U.S. The U.S. national security apparatus certainly had “failures along the way,” Mullin said.
Condoleezza Rice, who was serving as White House national security advisor on 9/11, participated in Friday’s commemoration at the Pentagon. In her remarks, she acknowledged that she still feels deep pain that “those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9/11.”
“I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen, still feel, and for the trauma that our country endured,” Rice said.
Binkley, Madhani and Kinnard write for the Associated Press. AP writers Anthony Izaguirre and Sagar Meghani contributed to this report.
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