Trump says firefighters near ground zero carried him to safety ‘right after’ 9/11 attacks

 Trump says firefighters near ground zero carried him to safety ‘right after’ 9/11 attacks

Trump's New 9/11 Story: Firefighters, a Shaky Building, and a Timeline That Doesn't Quite Add Up

If you caught the news this week, you probably saw the headline: President Trump says two firefighters literally scooped him up and ran him away from Ground Zero because they thought a nearby building was about to collapse. It's a vivid image — and it's also the latest chapter in a story that's been changing shape for years. Let's walk through what he actually said, what he said afterward to clarify it, and how it stacks up against the historical record.

What Trump said this week

Speaking at a "Steel Across America" event near the White House ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Trump described bringing construction workers down to Ground Zero and hearing ominous creaking coming from the building then known as the U.S. Steel Building (today known as One Liberty Plaza). According to Trump, two firefighters grabbed him under the arms, said they needed to get out of there, and carried him off — despite him insisting he could run on his own.

He told the story with his usual flair for detail: big, strong firemen, a building everyone feared was coming down, and him being lifted off his feet mid-rescue.

The walk-back on Truth Social

Shortly after the story made headlines, Trump posted on Truth Social to clarify the timing. He said he wasn't at the World Trade Center site "on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter." That's a meaningful clarification, because his original framing — going to Ground Zero "right after this happened" — left the impression the rescue happened on the day of the attacks, which couldn't be true: he was miles away at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan when the towers fell.

A story that's evolved before

This isn't the first time a version of this tale has surfaced. Back in 2021, in an interview with Newsmax, Trump told a similar story about "two big firemen" moving him away from the same building after hearing creaking sounds — though in that telling, there was no mention of being physically lifted off the ground. In 2016, he offered yet another variation, saying the incident happened "a couple of days" after the attacks, and describing the building as "not so far from us" rather than saying he was inside it.

Trump has also long claimed — without independent verification — that he sent more than 100 of his own construction workers to help with the recovery effort in the days after 9/11. Journalists and fact-checkers who've looked into it, including a retired NYFD battalion chief who spent months at Ground Zero, say there's no record of that workforce or of Trump's presence there.

So, is any of it true?

Here's where things get genuinely murky rather than clearly one thing or the other:

• The firefighter rescue itself: No photo, video, emergency record, or named first responder has surfaced publicly to confirm it happened. Trump hasn't named the firefighters involved, and the White House, when asked for evidence, didn't provide any.
• The panic about the building: This part has more grounding. There genuinely was unfounded panic in the days after 9/11 that One Liberty Plaza (the "U.S. Steel Building") might collapse — it had sustained real damage during the attacks. So it's plausible Trump was caught up in one of those moments of alarm near the building at some point. There's just no public proof that he personally was.
• The timeline: This is the clearest sticking point. He wasn't at the WTC site on 9/11 itself, and there's no evidence placing him inside or near the building "shortly thereafter" either — the only confirmed sighting is a September 13 television interview filmed outdoors in the general vicinity of Ground Zero.

The bigger 

Trump has told 9/11-related stories for years that have shifted in the retelling — from claims about his building becoming the tallest in downtown Manhattan after the towers fell, to the unverified 100-workers claim, to this latest firefighter story. None of that means every detail is invented out of thin air. But it does mean that, without evidence, the most dramatic parts of this particular story — being lifted off his feet by two firemen amid a building collapse scare — remain unconfirmed, while the general backdrop (chaos, fear, and real concerns about surrounding buildings) checks out as historically accurate for that period.

As the 25th anniversary approaches, it's a good reminder that even well-worn stories about a widely remembered event are worth a second look before taking them at face value — whoever is telling them.