President Trump delivers solemn remarks at Pentagon to commemorate 9/11
Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 – a moment that changed the world. President Trump delivered a speech at the Pentagon to commemorate the somber but important milestone.
by Summer Lane | September 11, 2026
President Donald Trump on Friday delivered remarks at the Pentagon, commemorating a sobering occasion: the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The 2001 attacks were carried out by terrorists who hijacked a total of four planes. Two planes destroyed the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City, one plane hit the Pentagon, and a fourth plane crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania after the American passengers on board revolted against the hijackers.
The fourth plane is assumed to have been heading for the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
“25 times we have gathered at this hallowed place and at Ground Zero in New York and a lonely field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania,” the president said.
He continued, “Yet time has not dimmed the honor of that day when our country came face to face with true evil.”
On September 11, 2001, 2,977 people were killed, including 441 first responders.
“Today, we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago: WE WILL NEVER, EVER FORGET.”
President Donald Trump, as a native New Yorker, was on the ground shortly after the 9/11 attacks and told reporters that the disaster was like nothing he’d ever seen before. “It’s just terrible,” he said in 2001. “I can’t get anywhere. Something I’ve never seen before. And dangerous. We have a lot of buildings still in a form of collapse, so it’s very dangerous and it’s tough.”
“For anyone who lived it, no words can do justice to the anguish of that day,” President Trump said in his remarks on Friday.
He also urged the nation toward a spirit of unity.
“No one can ever prepare for a day like 9/11 — but we can always choose to be the kind of nation the world saw in those days after,” he said. “…We can raise our children to know that their country is good, that their fathers are brave, and that our flag is a symbol of justice and freedom, and we can be a nation whose heroes are not fanatics for an abstract cause… but the kind who race into buildings and give their lives on a Tuesday morning for strangers they’ve never met.”
