Donald Trump has again claimed that he was pulled to safety by firefighters in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, during a speech near the White House marking the 25th anniversary of the Twin Towers. A 21-foot, nearly 17,000-pound steel beam recovered from the South Tower was on display at the event.
Trump told the crowd: 'The United States Steel Building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down. The truth is, it creaked a lot. It creaked. It still creaks, but it never came down.'
He added: 'And I'll never forget two firemen. We thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big, strong guys — and I'm not the smallest guy in the world — they grabbed me under the arm, said, "Got to get out of here!" And they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I'm big. They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said, "Fellas, I can run myself," but they were amazing. But they thought it was coming down. It didn't come down. American steel.'
Repeated claims and a former official's denial
This is not the first time Trump has placed himself at the scene of the disaster that killed nearly 3,000 people. In a Fox interview on Sunday, he boasted about his role in the aftermath at Ground Zero.
'I went down. I was building a building in New York, and I had a lot of construction workers. And I went down there very shortly thereafter, the following day. You couldn't go down the same day, but like, the following day, very quickly afterwards, and we worked long and hard, but it was just so terrible, so hopeless,' Trump said.
However, former New York Fire Department Deputy Chief Richard Alles, who spent months helping at the site, said he never saw Trump at Ground Zero. Alles, who witnessed the horror from 40 Wall Street, conducted an interview with US news station WWOR-TV in which he made the claim that the building he owned was now New York's tallest.
Alles said: 'I have a window that looks directly at the World Trade Center and I saw this huge explosion. I was with a group of people and I really couldn't believe it – and even worse than that, for years, I've looked right directly at the building. I see the Empire State Building in the foreground and the World Trade Centre in the background, and now I'm looking at absolutely nothing. It's just gone. And it's just hard to believe.'
40 Wall Street and the 2016 campaign trail
When asked by the hosts whether 40 Wall Street had sustained any damage, Trump responded: 'Well it was an amazing phone call I made, 40 Wall Street actually was the second tallest building in downtown Manhattan and it was actually, before the World Trade Centre, was the tallest. And then when they built the World Trade Centre, it became known as the second tallest. And now it's the tallest.'
On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump told attendees at an event that a 'screech' sound had prompted the firefighters to get him out. 'I was there when we actually thought the US Steel building was coming down and I'll never forget that I was standing next to these two massive wonderful firemen and we heard a screech and everybody thought that the U.S. Steel building was coming down and it was not so far from us. And these two guys there were massive guys, two really big — because I'm a big guy and they grabbed me. I must tell you honestly, I never knew I could run that fast,' he told the crowd.
Presidential Medal of Freedom for Welles Crowther
On Tuesday, President Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Welles Crowther, the 24-year-old equities trader remembered as the 'Man in the Red Bandana'. Trump said: 'After the plane hit the South Tower, a group of people on the 78th floor were trapped with broken bones, charred skin and eyes, and lungs filled with black smoke. Death was all about them; it was certain. They were sure they were going to die. Then suddenly, a rescuer appeared. They call him the 'Man in the Red Bandana.''
Crowther's mother, Alison, and sister, Paige, accepted the Medal on his behalf: 'This means the world to me, my daughters, Paige and Honor, and our entire family. This will be treasured for generations to come.'
