President Donald Trump is not attending the 9/11 memorial service in New York, following a New York Times report Friday that the president had wanted to deliver remarks at the event, which has long banned speeches.
A senior White House official confirmed to MS NOW that the president will instead attend an event at the Pentagon, which was also attacked on Sept. 11, and that Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to attend the New York City memorial.
Trump’s team had made advance visits to the site recently and planned to attend, and organizers of the traditionally nonpartisan memorial service heard in recent weeks that he wanted to speak, the Times reported, citing several people with knowledge of the plans.
Responding to a TMZ post on X about the claim that Trump would not attend because he wanted to deliver remarks, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung called it “fake news.”
The somber annual event has long drawn presidents and other politicians, including Trump. In 2024, when he attended while running for re-election, Trump brought right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who shared a video on X in 2023 calling 9/11 “an inside job.” Earlier this year, days before traveling with press on a Defense Department trip to Cuba, Loomer said the U.S. may “need another 9/11” to prevent Muslims from participating in American politics.
Trump has spoken often about witnessing the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York. But some of what the president said he saw unfold that day has been widely debunked, including his claims that he saw “thousands and thousands of people … cheering” in Jersey City, New Jersey, and that he witnessed people jumping from the Twin Towers from his apartment building in Midtown Manhattan — more than 4 miles from Ground Zero.
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