On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the nation would perpetually remember the victims and their families, while also addressing the ongoing military actions in Iran.
This marked the second consecutive year that Trump commemorated the day at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Alongside his wife Melania, he listened as the names of 184 individuals who lost their lives at the military headquarters were read on Friday following the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77.
“No one can ever be ready for a day like 9/11, but we can always choose to embody the kind of nation that the world witnessed in the aftermath,” Trump remarked, emphasizing the heroism of first responders and citizens on September 11, 2001.
Both Trump and U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth incorporated comments in their speeches to rationalize military actions against Iran, ongoing for over six months.
“We commend the service members currently ensuring that the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never possess a nuclear weapon,” Trump declared, garnering a modest round of applause.
Hegseth, on the other hand, was more direct and expansive in his remarks regarding the conflict that commenced on February 28.
“We continue to send terrorists to where they belong, to hell, and tankers to the ocean floor, where they ought to be,” he stated.
Dignitaries, survivors and their families gather in New York to observe 25 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The former World Trade Centre site still evokes strong emotions for those impacted by that day, including some Canadian first responders.
In total, four commercial airplanes were hijacked during the 9/11 attacks claimed by al-Qaeda, which had been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government two years prior. Two planes struck the World Trade Center, bringing down its twin towers, while another crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Officials determined that the hijackers of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania had intended to target Washington, D.C., but were thwarted from reaching the capital after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit.
Nearly 3,000 individuals lost their lives in total, including 24 Canadians.
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Vice-President JD Vance attended the Ground Zero observance in Lower Manhattan, joined by former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, along with numerous current and former officials from New York state and city. Bush was the president on 9/11 and was swiftly moved from scheduled events in Florida to a secure military facility in Nebraska.
Typically, political speeches are avoided at the New York commemoration, where relatives read the names of all the victims, interspersed with moments of silence at significant points in the timeline of the attacks.
After reciting the name of her late husband Tom during the 25th anniversary 9/11 ceremony in New York, Terry Strada expresses her frustration over the lengthy legal battle she has led to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the 2001 attacks.
However, Terry Strada, the national chair of 9/11 Families United, who has been leading a protracted legal effort to hold the Saudi monarchy accountable for the attacks, broke from tradition after stating her deceased husband’s name, Tom.
“How can it be that there has been no justice for the role Saudi Arabia played in your murder?” she questioned.
“For 25 years, every administration, including those represented here today, has opted to shield the Saudis rather than stand with the families of 9/11,” Strada continued.
Rosanne Spirito, 49, and her daughters Sabrina, 22, and Amanda, 20, stand at the 9/11 memorial reflecting pool on Friday in New York. Spirito’s sister, Catherine LoGuidice, who worked in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, was killed on September 11, 2001. (Adam Gray/The Associated Press)
This year’s ceremony included a moment of silence for individuals who were exposed to the toxic dust from the twin towers’ collapse and later died from cancer and other health issues, a first for the commemoration.
Zohran Mamdani, the first Muslim mayor of New York City, who was an elementary school student in the city during 9/11, expressed his desire for the anniversary to centre around the families of victims, first responders, and residents who provided mutual support after the attacks, which he described as a “horrific act of terror.”
The traditional recitation of the victims’ names at Ground Zero concluded just prior to 1 p.m. ET.
Attendees at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, participate in an observance on Friday. (Gene J. Puskar/The Associated Press)
During the memorial in Manhattan on Friday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wiped away tears but also smiled as he gazed at the names of Cantor Fitzgerald employees etched on the parapets surrounding the footprints of the fallen towers. Lutnick was the CEO of that investment firm when the assault on the World Trade Center claimed the lives of 658 of its 960 employees.
Officials from the Trump administration also attended a ceremony in Shanksville. Beyond the official federal events, the significant anniversary prompted memorial observances across the country, including wreath-laying, flag flying, moments of silence, vigils, and readings of victims’ names.
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In Canada, a solemn ceremony was held in Newfoundland. As air traffic across North America came to a halt, thirty-eight planes carrying over 6,500 passengers were rerouted to Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador.
The attacks transformed air travel in North America, led to enhanced federal surveillance, intelligence-gathering powers, and new banking regulations, and ignited ongoing discussions about the balance between security and freedom. The Department of Homeland Security was established in the aftermath of 9/11.
Al-Qaeda’s destructive attacks on September 11, 2001, sent shockwaves around the globe and initiated a cycle of warfare that continued long after its supremacy as the leading terror network. In a report for The National, Margaret Evans explores al-Qaeda’s decline and resurgence as a global threat.
The global war on terrorism led by the U.S., which included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, stemmed from that fateful day. The U.S. military located and eliminated al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, still awaits trial 23 years after his capture while detained at a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Canada supported the U.S. military initiative in Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of 159 Canadian service members and seven civilians during the prolonged deployment.