9/11: Donald Trump's bizarre quotes about September 11 attacks prior to becoming president
Before becoming 'leader of the free world', reality TV star propelled conspiracy theories and boasted about having higher television ratings than the 2001 atrocity
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has been criticised for airing his controversial views on everything from LGBT rights to climate change, and the terrorist attacks on America of September 2001 are no exception.
From his days as a real estate tycoon in New York to running a campaign for political office, the former reality TV star has whipped up controversy on several occasions surrounding an atrocity that killed close to 3,000 people.
And as the under-fire president readies himself for the latest 9/11 commemorations, the litany of controversial remarks will come under fresh scrutiny.
11 September 2001
“40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan… And now it’s the tallest.”
The day the Twin Towers fell, real estate businessman Mr Trump was speaking to radio station WWOR when he veered off to brag about his nearby 71-storey skyscraper, claiming the title of highest building in Lower Manhattan.
Shortly after the attack, Mr Trump claimed $150,000 from the government to cover “rent loss” and “repairs”. The money had originally been set aside for small businesses in the area.
11 September 2013
“I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.”
Mr Trump marked the anniversary on Twitter in 2013. He later deleted the tweet, but inexplicably kept his reposting of the original tweet.
November 2015
“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down, and I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down.”
The then-presidential candidate said at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama, that people had celebrated the disaster across the water from the Twin Towers. He later repeated his claim to ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, adding that the cheers came from areas of New Jersey with “large Arab populations”. The claims were denied by Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and police.
February 2016
“The World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush. He kept us safe? That is not safe. That is not safe”
At a primary season debate, candidate Mr Trump took his former rivals Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush to task for defending former President George W Bush.
He added: “The World Trade Center came down because Bill Clinton didn’t kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance to kill him. And George Bush — by the way, George Bush had the chance, also, and he didn’t listen to the advice of his CIA.”
February 2016
“I lost hundreds of friends in 9/11.”
Mr Trump insisted he knew many of the people working in the Twin Towers, but never named a single person. The president would have had to have known about one in 10 of the victims if his claim of knowing “hundreds” of the 2,996 victim was true.
March 2016
“Thanks sweetie. That’s nice”
When Mr Trump was promoting the opening of his new hotel in Washington DC while on the campaign trail, a woman in the crowd asked him if he would hire veterans and 9/11 survivors. He invited her to the stage, promising he would give her a job. She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, and he replied, “Thanks sweetie. That’s nice.”
August 2016
“Those people that knocked down the World Trade Centre most likely under the Trump policy wouldn’t have been here to knock down the World Trade Centre, just so you understand.”
At another campaign event, he insisted he would have been smarter on terrorism than his predecessor. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were citizens of Saudi Arabia – a country omitted from the list of countries included in his controversial travel ban.
April 2017
“It’s the highest [ratings] for ‘Deface the Nation’ since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down. It’s a tremendous advantage.”
In an interview about his first 100 days in the White House with the Associated Press, Donald Trump boasted that his “ratings” on cable network shows like on Fox and CBS’s Face the Nation were higher than those for broadcasts of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The president has been consistently preoccupied with his ratings and the turnouts at his rallies. Within hours of his inauguration, he punished the National Park Service for posting pictures of his ceremony which seemed to compare his crowds with a much higher turnout for Barack Obama.
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