Barred from speaking, Trump to skip 9/11 25th anniversary ceremony in NYC

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Aug 28, 2026

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NEW YORK — President Donald Trump will snub the Sept. 11 ceremony at ground zero marking the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks reportedly because he wasn’t going to be permitted to deliver a speech at the event.

Instead of lower Manhattan, Trump is expected to attend a 9/11 ceremony at the Pentagon where he will make a speech, while Vice President JD Vance will replace him at the New York event.

The surprise decision by Trump to skip the main national ceremony marking a quarter century since the worst terror attack on American soil came in recent weeks after the president’s request to speak was rebuffed by leaders of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, The New York Times first reported.

The memorial works scrupulously to maintain what it sees as the nonpartisan and apolitical nature of the annual commemorations and has barred political leaders from making speeches for more than a decade.

Along with Vance, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to attend the 9/11 ceremony at ground zero, along with ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Trump’s Sept. 11 speech, now planned for the Pentagon, will come on the heels of his appearance at an unusual Republican midterm political convention set for Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10, suggesting the address may have a partisan edge.

He plans to jet out the next day for a visit to Ireland, where the Irish Open golf tournament is taking place at his golf resort on the Emerald Isle.

Trump attended the ground zero memorial ceremonial in 2024 along with Vance and then-President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the home stretch of the presidential campaign that Trump wound up winning. None of the notables spoke but Trump visited a fire station later and met with FDNY firefighters.

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