Trump claims he was carried out of Ground Zero after September 11. Is that true?

Washington: US President Donald Trump told a September 11 tribute event that firefighters carried him out of Ground Zero in the aftermath of the tragedy 25 years ago, resurrecting an old story of which there is no definitive proof.

Trump made the claim at a function near the White House on Tuesday (US time) where he honoured New York City firefighter Jeffrey Palazzo and bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon Welles Crowther, a young equities trader who saved numerous lives in the wreckage, but died when the building collapsed.

The president, who forged his career in real estate development, said he was erecting a building in New York at the time and took the construction crew to Ground Zero “right after this happened” to see if they could assist. “Everybody went down with me … wasn’t too much we could do, I’ll be honest,” he said.

Trump referred to another building near the World Trade Centre site, One Liberty Plaza, also known as the US Steel building, which was believed to be in danger of collapse in the immediate aftermath of the attack. “The truth is it creaked a lot, it still creaks. But it never came down,” Trump said.

“I’ll never forget. 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 and said, ‘Got to get out of here’.

“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’.”

Many Trump critics with large followings on social media instantly mischaracterised Trump’s comments as him claiming that he was pulled out of the World Trade Centre rubble on September 11, which is not what he said.

The same accounts frequently allege that Trump has fallen asleep during Oval Office events, using live-stream footage to back up their claim – when, in fact, he is looking down at paperwork on the Resolute Desk.

However, Trump’s claim to have been carried out of One Liberty Plaza in the aftermath of September 11 is also disputed, and adds to numerous anecdotes he has told about that week that have never been substantiated.

There is contemporaneous proof Trump visited Ground Zero on September 13, 2001 – two days after the attack. He gave an interview to NBC News from the scene, in which he said he had hundreds of men working on the recovery effort, with 125 more on the way. Those claims have also been disputed over the years.

It is certainly the case that authorities feared One Liberty Plaza would collapse in the immediate aftermath of the event. It had sustained damage, and CNN reported on September 12 that the building – which was also the new home of the Nasdaq stock exchange – had “partially collapsed” .

Those fears were soon dismissed. The New York Times later reported that Ilyse Fink, communications director at New York City’s building department, had cleared the building of structural concerns as early as September 12. “It is not and was not in danger of collapse. The building is structurally sound.”

This masthead is not aware of photographic evidence or testimony from firefighters that shows Trump was ever inside or nearby the building during his visit to Ground Zero, and it is highly unlikely that people would have been allowed near, given it had been evacuated and was believed to be in danger.

However, he was in the vicinity on September 13, and it is possible he was close enough to the building to have been moved on by firefighters.

According to CNN reporter Daniel Dale, when Trump recounted the same story on the campaign trail in 2016, he said that One Liberty Plaza was “not so far from us” when he was assisted by the firemen.

But his fresh claims, made in the lead-up the 25th anniversary of one of America’s darkest days, add to several apocryphal stories Trump has told about that week, including that he saw thousands of Arabs in New Jersey cheering as the World Trade Centre buildings collapsed.

He has also claimed that he “helped a little bit” in cleaning up the rubble.

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