President Donald Trump is set to observe Friday’s 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by attending a ceremony at the Pentagon. It’s the second year in a row for Trump to mark the day at the Pentagon. The president is originally from New York and last attended the ground zero ceremony there in 2024.
Friday’s milestone anniversary will bring memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll. Security is tight at the ceremony in New York Police officers stationed around the perimeter of the event are checking tickets and credentials to ensure only invited guests, such as victim relatives, survivors and first responders, and others connected to the event are allowed through. That’s before a full security screening at the entrance to the site, which is surrounded by the type of steel fencing now familiar at high-profile events.
Along with that, the streets are filled with the apparatus of police and emergency response — NYPD vehicles lining the western perimeter, heavily armed and armored counterterrorism officers patrolling the nearby subway stations, and flashing police lights abound. As the memorial goes on, so does life around ground zero New Yorkers going about their days mixed with 9/11 family members, firefighters and other first responders on the streets and sidewalks of lower Manhattan. People jogged by in brightly colored running attire.
Others hoisted American flags. People clasped iced coffees and bagged pastries. A woman outside a church sold buttons commemorating the occasion.
A man thanked the two police officers guarding the perimeter for their service. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wipes away tears at the 9/11 memorial He was the CEO of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald when the attack on the World Trade Center killed 658 of its 960 employees. He survived because he was taking his son to school when the attack happened.
His brother, Gary Lutnick, was among those who died. At the memorial Friday, Lutnick wiped away a tear, but also smiled as he looked fondly at the names of Cantor Fitzgerald employees inscribed on the parapets that ring the footprints of the fallen towers. Former presidents attend 9/11 ceremony in New York Four former presidents are in Manhattan for the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at the city’s ceremony at ground zero.
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