Media reports indicate that US President Donald Trump will not attend the 24th anniversary commemoration of the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center site in New York, for the second year in a row.
According to the New York Times, Trump will commemorate the victims at a ceremony held at the Pentagon, after the memorial museum administration prevented him from giving a speech. The newspaper noted that the president, who grew up in New York and built his real estate empire there, had wanted to speak at the National Memorial Museum and had sent his team for advance visits, but the museum administration has refused since 2012 to allow politicians to give speeches, in order to avoid any political polarization at the ceremony. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance will represent the administration at the New York ceremony, in the presence of former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush.
Trump will return to Washington from the Republican National Convention in Texas two days before the anniversary to deliver a speech at a Pentagon ceremony, where political speeches are still permitted, and then depart for Ireland to visit his golf course, which is hosting the Irish Open, on a trip that will be less disruptive to air traffic than military bases in Maryland compared to New York airports.
Trump commemorated the anniversary at the Pentagon last year, in a ceremony moved to the inner courtyard following the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk, pledging to honor the victims and defend the values they died for. His last visit to the center's site was in 2024, where he exchanged an awkward handshake with Kamala Harris in the presence of President Biden, in a rare meeting four months before his second inauguration.
