Newsom accuses Trump of lying during his 9/11 attack response anecdote

Newsom challenges Trump’s account of post-9/11 response

Provpnadvice.com – California Gov. Gavin Newsom sharply criticized President Trump after Trump described being carried from a lower Manhattan building in the chaotic period surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The dispute followed a White House event recognizing first responders who served during the attacks. Trump told attendees that he had been inside One Liberty Plaza, then known as the U.S. Steel Building, when the structure began making alarming noises after the attack on the World Trade Center.

“They lifted me up and they started running with me,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Fellas, I can run myself.’ But they were amazing. But they thought it was coming down. It didn’t come down.”

Trump said two firefighters took hold of his arms and moved him from the building because they feared it could collapse. His recollection quickly drew criticism online, including from Newsom, who shared a post characterizing the story as Trump being lifted away from the rubble on 9/11.

“An absolutely disgusting thing to lie about,” Newsom wrote.

Questions over the timeline

Trump later pushed back against criticism of his remarks. In a Truth Social post, he said he had not claimed to be at Ground Zero when the Twin Towers collapsed on Sept. 11. Instead, he said he visited shortly afterward alongside a large group of construction workers.

His comments concern a period that remains deeply meaningful to New Yorkers and to families of victims, emergency personnel, recovery workers and others directly affected by the attacks. The destruction of the World Trade Center killed thousands of people, and the recovery operation at the site continued for months.

Trump was a New York businessman at the time, with his office based in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. As events unfolded that morning, he called into WWOR-TV and discussed the impact of the attacks. During that appearance, he said his building had become the tallest in lower Manhattan after the towers fell.

The first known video images placing Trump near the World Trade Center site were filmed on Sept. 13, 2001, during two interviews. At the time, Trump said his company had sent more than 100 workers to help with recovery efforts.

That assertion has also faced scrutiny. Richard Alles, a former New York Fire Department battalion chief, said in 2019 that a substantial deployment of Trump workers at Ground Zero would likely have produced records or recollections among those managing the response.

“Is there a chance he was ever down there by himself and I didn’t know it?” Alles said. “It’s possible, but I know of no one who ever witnessed him there.”

Bernard Kerik, the former New York Police commissioner, offered a different account in 2019, saying Trump visited the area many times and sought to encourage people working at the pile.

A politically charged remembrance

The exchange illustrates how memories of Sept. 11, particularly public accounts involving the immediate aftermath, can become part of wider political arguments. Trump’s description focused on the actions of firefighters and the danger they perceived at the time. Newsom’s response centered on whether the episode happened as described.

For many Americans, anniversaries of the attacks are primarily occasions for remembrance rather than partisan conflict. Ceremonies commonly honor the 9/11 victims, the passengers and crew members killed in the hijackings, and the police officers, firefighters, medical workers and volunteers who responded during and after the attacks.

Trump is scheduled to speak at the Pentagon for the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The Pentagon was one of the sites hit by hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001. He is not expected to attend the New York City commemoration, where the four living former presidents and Vice President Vance are set to appear.

The planned events will place attention once again on the national trauma of that day and on the people who responded. They will also unfold amid renewed debate over Trump’s personal account of the days after the attacks, with Newsom’s accusation adding another prominent voice to the criticism.