Donald Trump’s own nephew turns on him over his 9/11 aid claims. Then delivers a blistering rebuke: ‘It so offends me that I need to speak’
Dubious claims.
It’s rare to see a family member openly challenge a sitting president, but that is exactly what happened this week when Fred Trump III decided to call out his uncle, President Donald Trump, over his shifting narratives regarding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to PEOPLE, as the 25th anniversary of that tragic day approaches, the president has faced significant backlash for repeating claims about his personal involvement in the recovery efforts at Ground Zero.
Fred Trump, the 63-year-old son of the president’s eldest brother, took to X on Tuesday, September 8, to set the record straight, stating that the president’s 9/11 aid claims were so inaccurate that he felt a moral obligation to speak out. The core of the dispute involves the president’s recent assertions that he brought a large crew of construction workers to the site of the World Trade Center to assist with the recovery.
During an event at the White House on Tuesday, the president told the audience, “I want to just thank my people. I took a lot of my – I was building a big building in New York and I took the whole crew right down there after this happened and they had no hesitation. Everyone went down with me.” He doubled down on this narrative in a Truth Social post, claiming he was there shortly after the attacks with a “large group of Construction Workers.”
Fred Trump disagreed
In his post on X, Fred clarified that his uncle was not actually building a major project in the area at the time of the attacks. He noted that the only people from the Trump organization who might have been near the site were office staff. “The only crew he claimed to bring to the site would have been secretarial and accounting employees from Trump Tower. I knew many of them, and pretty sure they were not capable physically to help (if they could, I am sure they would try),” Fred wrote.
It’s a bold move to dismantle a story that the president has been telling about the tragic day that claimed over 3000 lives for years. However, Fred’s intimate knowledge of the family business and the people involved adds a layer of credibility that’s hard to ignore. Adding to the confusion is the president’s dramatic story about being whisked away by firefighters from the U.S. Steel Building, now known as One Liberty Plaza.
The president claimed that the building was “creaking” and that two “big, strong” firefighters physically lifted him up and ran with him to safety. This tale has evolved quite a bit since he first mentioned it during the 2016 campaign.
Fred Trump dismantled this account as well, citing his own connections to the building’s engineering history. He explained that the building was constructed to be incredibly strong and that, while there were initial concerns, engineers quickly cleared it for occupancy. It never reached the state of near-collapse that the president described.
The reality is far from Trump’s claims
According to the Daily Beast, the president was located at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue during the attacks, which is roughly two-and-a-half miles away from the World Trade Center. While the president has shared archival photos and videos of himself in Lower Manhattan in the days following the attacks, none of the evidence provided by the White House confirms his presence near the actual rubble or the deployment of a construction crew.
Even former Trump Organization executive Barbara Res pointed out that if the president had truly deployed hundreds of workers to Ground Zero, it would have been a massive media event documented by every major news outlet at the time. The White House has defended the president’s comments, with spokesperson Davis Ingle characterizing the criticism as an attempt by the media to attack him.
Ingle stated, “The President was relaying his experience of a city reeling immediately after and in the days and weeks after the horrific attacks – and the fact that the failing legacy media is using this to try to attack him is a disgrace and yet another reason why Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low.” Despite this defense, no concrete evidence has been provided to substantiate the claims about the construction crew or the dramatic rescue by firefighters.
The president’s habit of self-promotion has been a hallmark of his career
Yet, when it touches on a tragedy as sensitive as 9/11, the public reaction is understandably intense. Fred Trump’s decision to speak out, especially given his past history of sharing family details in his memoir, shows just how deep the divide has become.
As we approach September 11, it’s clear that the truth behind these stories remains a point of major contention, and it doesn’t look like the debate is going to settle down anytime soon. Whether you believe the president’s account or his nephew’s rebuttal, the entire situation is a stark reminder of how quickly historical events can be reshaped through personal narrative.
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