Kathrine Frich
Historical records offer no evidence that Trump or his employees worked at the site.
Public memory around major national tragedies often grows rigid over time. Yet recollections change. A television interview has once again brought a familiar personal story back under scrutiny.
Unverified rescue claims
Donald Trump has revived a controversial personal story about the days following the 9/11 attacks.
Speaking on Fox News with host Trey Gowdy, the president insisted he mobilized his construction crews to help clear rubble at Ground Zero.
“I went down. I was building a building in New York and I had a lot of construction workers,” Trump said on Fox News. He added that “we worked long and hard,” describing the aftermath as “so terrible and so hopeless.”
However, historical records offer no evidence that Trump or his employees worked at the site. The records simply are not there. According to HuffPost, the claim mirrors statements he made during his 2016 and 2019 campaigns.
Eyewitness accounts differ
First responders and reporters from that week recall a very different scene. Newsday reported on September 14, 2001, describing Trump at the plaza two days after the attacks.
The paper noted he was “every hair in place and impeccably dressed in a black suit, pressed white shirt and red tie, walking into the plaza with his cellular phone to his ear.” A reporter overheard him saying, “No, no. The building’s gone.”
Emergency officials also questioned his story. In a 2018 interview with Snopes, retired fire deputy chief Richard Alles stated he never saw Trump or his workers at the scene.
Alles explained that union trade crews handled clearance work. “This is the first I’m hearing of it,” Alles told Snopes, adding that “Between police, fire and the construction crews, we had it all covered.”
History of tall tales
This is not his only unverified claim about 2001. HuffPost reported that Trump previously claimed he watched people jump from the Twin Towers from his window at Trump Tower, four miles away.
He also insisted that thousands cheered the attacks in Jersey City, a claim debunked by police. Right after the towers fell, he falsely boasted on radio that his building at 40 Wall Street was now the tallest in lower Manhattan.
Despite persistent criticism, Trump continues to repeat his personal account of those fateful days.
Sources: Fox News, HuffPost, Newsday, Snopes
