Being a New Yorker, Donald Trump has spoken quite a bit about 9/11.
And like most of what he says, it’s full of narcissism, xenophobia, and straight up lies.
Related: Celebs Pay Tribute On 9/11/2018
Here are some of the worst:
9/11 Made His Building The Tallest
Trump’s first takeaway from the attacks? How it helped him. Seriously.
In an interview with a local TV network on the afternoon of September 11, 2001, he actually seemed to celebrate that the destruction of the Twin Towers as it made his building the tallest again:
“It was an amazing phone call. 40 Wall Street [The Trump Building] actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest. And then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it’s the tallest.”
How disgusting.
Trump interview on 9/11: "[My building] was the 2nd-tallest in Manhattan… And now it’s the tallest." #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/47WUsSKLRu
— Ess (@ScottyLiterati) September 11, 2016
BTW, it’s not even true. 70 Pine Street was taller, 952 feet to Trump’s 927.
It was gross AND a lie.
He Predicted The Attack
A decade after the tragedy, Trump was in full self-aggrandizing mode, on his way to another presidential run.
This time, he told Mark Wahlberg to hold his beer and actually implied he could have prevented 9/11 because he predicted it!
I predicted the 9/11 attack on America in my book "The America We Deserve" and the collapse of Iraq in @TimeToGetTough.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2011
The book contains no such prediction. No one really knows what he’s doing here besides trying to sell more books.
Haters And Losers
Five years back, Trump decided to mark the occasion of the anniversary of 9/11 by calling out “haters and losers”??
“@realDonaldTrump: I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2013
“Special date”?
“From The Heart”
Remember when Trump said during a 2016 rally he “watched our police and our firemen down on 7-Eleven”?
This one is just a flub, not a lie. But man what a toolbag.
9/11 Got Good Ratings
In a 2017 interview with the Associated Press, Trump bragged about the ratings CBS’ Face The Nation got for his appearance by saying:
“It’s the highest for ‘Deface the Nation’ since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down. It’s a tremendous advantage.”
Ratings. Wow.
Muslim Immigrants Cheered 9/11
Probably the most notable jaw-dropper was when Trump claimed during one of his racist campaign rallies in November 2015 that “thousands” in New Jersey “where you have large Arab populations” gathered to cheer as the towers fell:
“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
He doubled down the next morning when asked about the odd claim on ABC’s This Week:
“There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down.”
Trump said these cheering crowds of thousands were “well covered at the time.”
They were not. This never happened.
Interestingly, reporters believe they tracked his misstatements to a misunderstanding or exaggeration of an article about the law enforcement investigation of claims of people throwing “parties” on rooftops to watch the destruction.
The article’s co-author, Serge Kovaleski, responded to then-candidate Trump’s speech, saying nothing in that article or its research remotely backed up his outrageous claims.
That led to the infamous moment Trump mocked Kovaleski’s disability at another rally:
Bet you didn’t even remember what started all that!
Scandal upon scandal.
[Image via Judy Eddy/WENN.]
Related Posts
-
Categories
