Trump Says Firefighters Carried Him from a Building They Feared Would Collapse Near Ground Zero. He Was Miles Away on 9/11
· Thought Catalog
Updated 3 minutes ago, September 9, 2026
Trump keeps telling a 9/11 rescue story that gets more dramatic every time. In the latest version, two firefighters scooped him up and ran with him. On the actual day, he was four miles uptown watching it on TV.
On September 11, 2001, Trump was at Trump Tower in Midtown, roughly four miles from the World Trade Center, watching the attacks on television and calling into local TV. The earliest documented sighting near Ground Zero is September 13, when he showed up downtown in a business suit, gave interviews, and high-fived officers a few blocks from the pile.
The rescue he described at a White House event on September 8, 2026 has no such record. He said the U.S. Steel Building was “creaking, really creaking,” and that two “big, strong” firefighters grabbed him under the arms, told him “Gotta get out of here,” “literally lifted me up,” and “started running with me.” He added that he told them he could run himself.
He’s been telling versions of this since at least 2016, and they keep growing. On the 2016 campaign trail he said the firefighters grabbed him and he “never knew I could run that fast,” running alongside them. By 2026 he was being carried. He later clarified online that he wasn’t there the day the towers fell, but “shortly thereafter.”
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No names, no photos, no video, no first-responder accounts back the lift-and-carry story. Retired FDNY battalion chief Richard Alles, on scene about 20 minutes after the second tower fell and present for months, said he had no knowledge of Trump or the large construction crew Trump has claimed he sent. The building did creak, and nearby structures were evacuated in the days after. Trump’s personal rescue from it is undocumented.
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