'That's why we fight': Trump links 9/11 to Iran conflict
Summary
President Donald Trump said at the Pentagon on Friday that the United States would never forget the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and linked that memory to the fight against Iran. He said the country was continuing the war on terror 25 years later and also attacked domestic fanatics in an apparent swipe at Democrats. The Pentagon ceremony remembered the 184 people killed there when one hijacked jet hit the building.
Key Facts
- Trump said the U.S. would never, ever forget the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
- One of the hijacked planes hit the Pentagon, killing 184 people.
- The attacks killed 2,977 victims at the World Trade Center, where presidents have often marked major anniversaries in New York.
- Trump said the Islamic Republic of Iran is the world’s number one sponsor of terror and vowed it will never ever have a nuclear weapon.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. had laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism over the past six months.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks in the courtyard of the Pentagon, Friday, in Arlington, Virginia. The United States is marking the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when a group of al-Qaeda hijackers flew airplanes into the World Trade Center, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people. Getty Images via AFP-Yonhap
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump vowed Friday that the United States would never forget the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and suggested the country was continuing the "war on terror" 25 years later by fighting Iran.
Speaking at the Pentagon after skipping the main 9/11 commemorations in New York, Republican Trump also hit out at domestic "fanatics" in an apparent swipe at Democrats.
"Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago. We will never, ever forget. That's why we fight today," Trump said in a speech.
"We don't have a choice. There can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win," added the president, who was accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump.
One of the jets hijacked on 9/11 hit the Pentagon in Washington, killing 184 people who were remembered by a single bell tolling as their names were read out.
But presidents have previously marked major anniversaries by attending several sites including New York, where the majority of the 2,977 victims were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Trump went on to link the fight against Al-Qaeda launched by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush to the US-Israeli war on Iran which is now in its seventh month.
"Today we salute every member of the United States military who served in the 'War on Terror.' It is a war on sick, horrible terror," Trump said.
"And we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon."
'Islamic theocracy'
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also lashed out at Iran in his remarks to the Pentagon ceremony.
"Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world's most prolific state sponsor of terrorism. Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished U.S. death for nearly half a century," Hegseth said.
The Iran war has slid into a stalemate with Iran largely maintaining its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, and keeping oil prices high, despite sporadic exchanges of fire with the United States.
Trump also turned to the domestic front, a day after a Republican convention for the U.S. midterm elections in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Democrats of sympathizing with the 9/11 attackers.
"A generation after 9/11, we also know that the final response to those atrocities and the ultimate victory over the perpetrators will not be found on a foreign battlefield," Trump said.
Telling the story of a firefighter killed in the attacks whose son went on to become a U.S. Navy veteran, Trump said it showed that "we can be a nation whose heroes are not fanatics for an abstract cause."
In his speech to the Republican convention on Wednesday, Trump had used the same term: "With your vote in this election, you can tell these far-left lunatics and fanatics that America is not for sale to them or to anybody else."
Republicans at the convention repeatedly trained their fire on left-wing Democratic senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed over his previous social media posts about 9/11.
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