President Trump will honor 9/11 victims at the Pentagon as JD Vance joins former presidents at the Ground Zero remembrance ceremony.
President Donald Trump will mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks at the Pentagon on Friday, paying tribute to the nearly 3,000 people killed and the first responders who risked their lives during the attacks.
Trump’s appearance at the Pentagon comes as the United States pauses to remember the victims of the attacks that forever changed the country. The president is expected to honor those killed, their families and the first responders who rushed into danger on Sept. 11, 2001.
White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said Trump would remember those “killed at the hands of evil terrorists,” honor their loved ones and recognize the first responders who put their lives on the line to rescue fellow Americans.
Vance to attend Ground Zero ceremony
While Trump attends the Pentagon remembrance, Vice President JD Vance will represent the administration at the World Trade Center site in New York.
Vance will join former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at the Ground Zero ceremony. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is also expected to attend.
The division of appearances ensures that administration officials are represented at all three locations connected to the attacks: the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The 25th anniversary ceremonies are expected to feature traditional moments of silence, readings of victims’ names and tributes to first responders. This year’s observances also recognize people who later died from illnesses linked to toxic exposure following the attacks.
Trump has marked 9/11 at Pentagon before
Friday’s ceremony will be Trump’s second consecutive year marking 9/11 at the Pentagon. He and first lady Melania Trump attended the Pentagon’s 24th-anniversary commemoration in 2025.
Trump previously attended Pentagon memorial ceremonies during his first presidential term in 2017 and 2019. In 2018 and 2020, he commemorated the anniversary at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville.
Trump was a New York real-estate developer when the attacks occurred and has frequently discussed his memories of watching the World Trade Center tragedy unfold.
Ahead of this year’s anniversary, Trump also participated in a White House event featuring a 21-foot steel beam recovered from the South Tower. The artifact was brought to Washington as part of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s “Steel Across America” memorial tour.
A nation remembers
The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 victims when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon, while a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overcome the hijackers. The attacks triggered profound changes in U.S. national security and foreign policy and launched the post-9/11 “war on terror.”
Twenty-five years later, memorial ceremonies across the country are giving Americans an opportunity to remember those lost, honor survivors and recognize the first responders whose sacrifices continued long after the attacks themselves.
For Trump and Vance, Friday’s separate appearances at the Pentagon and Ground Zero will place the administration at the center of the nation’s milestone remembrance as America observes a quarter-century since 9/11.
