President Donald Trump used a White House address to mark the upcoming anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks to tout his administration's economic record and brag about his own alleged presence at the scene of the attack a quarter-century ago. The president was speaking at the Ellipse near the White House on Tuesday, where a piece of structural steel from the fallen World Trade Center towers was on display as part of a nonprofit group’s commemoration of the attacks. He said the “battered piece of steel” from the collapsed buildings was “a reminder that America is blessed with a strength no fire can consume, no evil can conquer, and no terror can destroy” before he segued into his own remembrance of being at the attack site.
The truth is, it creaked a lot. It still creaks, but it never came down. And I'll never forget two firemen.
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, said, "Got to get out of here! And they literally lifted me up,” Trump recalled.
They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said, "Fellas, I can run myself, but they were amazing. But they thought it was coming down.
It didn't come down,” he added. Trump has told that story about his supposed presence at Ground Zero at least once before. During a January 2016 campaign stop in New Hampshire during his first run for the presidency, Trump told attendees at an event that a “screech” sound had prompted the reaction from the firefighters.
Steel building was coming down and I'll never forget that I was standing next to these two massive wonderful firemen and we heard a screech ... and everybody thought that the U.S. Steel building was coming down and it was not so far from us. And these two guys there were massive guys, two really big -- because I'm a big guy and they grabbed me.
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