The nephew disputes two of the president’s claims.
As the US marks 25 years since the September 11 attacks, President Donald Trump has faced sharp pushback over his personal stories from that tragic day.
The sharpest critique came directly from inside his own family.
Fred Trump, the president’s nephew, took to social media to challenge claims about his uncle’s actions after the World Trade Center towers fell. He focused heavily on the assertion that Donald Trump sent construction crews to help clear rubble.
Fred stated that the assertion “so offends me that I need to speak out.”
He pointed out that Trump World Tower was already open before the attacks, meaning there was no active local construction crew to dispatch.
This is only partially true, as the Trump World Tower was officially finished in October 2001, the month after the attacks. However, individual residential units were already completed and occupied when the attack happened.
According to Fred, the claims make little sense. He noted that the “only crew he claimed to bring to the site would have been secretarial and accounting employees from Trump Tower I knew many of them, and pretty sure they were not capable physically to help (if they could, I am sure they would try).”
Article continues below.
Missing paper trail
The nephew also targeted another story involving the U.S. Steel Building. President Trump claimed two firefighters dragged him away from the structure out of fear it might collapse.
Fred recalled that an engineer who inspected the site noted people were concerned, but denied the building was “creaking and ready to fall.” News reports from the era also show no record of the incident taking place.
On the day of the attack, records show Trump was actually miles away uptown, giving a phone interview to a local television station. Still, the president posted on Truth Social to insist his memories are completely accurate.
The public clash is just the latest rift between the two relatives. Fred, whose father passed away in 1981, previously voiced strong criticisms in his 2024 book “All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way.”
