What Donald Trump said about his building just hours after 9/11 — and what followed

“40 Wall Street 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.” These were Donald Trump’s words on September 11, 2001, hours after the World Trade Center towers were attacked and brought down.

The 70-story Trump Building at 40 Wall Street, originally built as the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building. (Wikimedia Commons)Trump, a prominent New York City real estate developer and media personality at the time, was speaking by phone to WWOR-TV, a New Jersey television station covering the attacks. The anchor asked Trump whether 40 Wall Street, his 70-story skyscraper located just blocks from Ground Zero, had suffered any physical damage. Trump briefly mentioned a phone call he had received regarding the building's safety before shifting his focus to its height and ranking in the skyline.

The recording has resurfaced frequently over the years, both for its factual accuracy and for Trump's immediate choice of focus. In 2001, years before his entry into politics, Trump was a private real estate mogul.

A 2018 Washington Post fact-check examined the claim using data from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. At the time, 40 Wall Street was the 32nd-tallest building in New York City when existing and planned buildings were considered together. Many of the taller buildings were outside Lower Manhattan, but even within the downtown area Trump described, 40 Wall Street was not the tallest.

The Washington Post reported that 70 Pine Street stood about 25 feet higher.

There is a historical detail to Trump's statement. 40 Wall Street had, for a period in the 1930s, been the tallest building in Lower Manhattan. But that period came long before Trump owned the building — and before he was born.

The 2001 interview became one piece of a much larger and frequently contested story Trump has told about his relationship to the attacks. The Washington Post described his 9/11 claims as beginning on the afternoon of the attacks themselves. Later accounts would involve where he was when the planes hit, what he saw from his Manhattan apartment and whether he personally participated in the recovery effort.

One of the most consequential later claims concerned Ground Zero.

Trump has repeatedly said that he went to the site and helped with recovery efforts. In a 2019 White House event, he said, “I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder,” and said he had spent “a lot of time down there” with first responders. In 2021, he again described going to the site and said two firefighters had pulled him away because they believed a building might collapse.

But former New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Deputy Chief Richard Alles, who said he spent months at Ground Zero, disputed that account. “I spent many months there myself, and I never witnessed him,” Alles said, according to The Daily Beast and the New York Times. He also questioned what role Trump, then a private citizen, could have played.

Trump's account has continued to evolve. In a Fox News interview this month, he gave perhaps his most specific version yet, saying he went to Ground Zero “the following day” with construction workers and that they “worked long and hard” there. The Daily Beast reported that this was the first time Trump had attached that specific timing to his claim.

Trump had also later claimed over the years that he personally saw people jumping from the towers, despite being several miles away, and that he had witnessed large numbers of American Muslims celebrating the attacks. Those claims have been disputed or found unsupported.

The 40 Wall Street clip did not remain a forgotten piece of television from the day of the attacks. It resurfaced as Trump's public profile changed, particularly during presidential campaigns and around subsequent 9/11 anniversaries.

The Washington Post revisited the recording in 2016, when Trump was running for president, and the newspaper returned to the claim again in 2018 with a detailed fact-check. The Independent likewise compiled Trump's controversial 9/11 remarks during the 2016 and 2018 political cycles.

By then, the 2001 recording had acquired a different significance. It could be examined alongside later statements — including Trump's 2015 claim that he watched people jump from the towers, his claim that he had “lost hundreds of friends in 9/11,” and his repeated accounts of helping at Ground Zero.

The recording subsequently became part of a broader body of reporting and fact-checking examining Trump's accounts of his whereabouts and activities on and after September 11. Trump's biographer told the New York Times in 2019: “He’s very comfortable propagandizing that event for political purposes.” O'Brien added: “Even in the face of tragedy, he can’t help but self-promote and self-aggrandize.”

The evolution is visible in Trump's own descriptions.

In 2001, Trump’s interview with WWOR-TV focused mostly on the damage from the attacks and the height of his building at 40 Wall Street. Two days later, on September 13, Trump spoke to reporters near Ground Zero. In footage uncovered by PBS NewsHour, he spoke about the destruction, saying, "It's just terrible. I can't get anywhere. Something I've never seen before," while also expressing confidence in the city: "They're tough. New Yorkers are tough. The country is tough."

During those September 13 interviews, Trump also started saying he was involved in the recovery efforts. According to CBC News, Trump told a reporter from Germany’s Deutsche Welle: "I have a lot of men down here right now. We have over 100, or we have about 125 coming, so we'll have a couple of hundred people down here."

However, fact-checkers like PolitiFact and local reports from the time found no city records, site rosters, or official logs confirming that a Trump construction crew actually worked at Ground Zero. Years later, his accounts increasingly centred on his own proximity to the attacks and his alleged role in the response.

In 2015, he said he had watched the second plane hit and people jumping from his Manhattan apartment. In 2019, he described seeing the attacks and said he had gone to Ground Zero. In 2026, he gave a specific account of going there the following day with construction workers.

There is also another strand to his later 9/11 narrative: political responsibility. During the 2016 Republican primary campaign, Trump argued that the attacks happened under George W. Bush and also blamed both Bill Clinton and Bush for not killing Osama bin Laden when they had opportunities to do so.

As the United States marks 25 years since the September 11 attacks, national commemorations across lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and Shanksville are planned. The White House announced that official 2026 anniversary events feature split presidential representation, with President Donald Trump delivering remarks at the Pentagon while Vice President JD Vance represents the administration at the nonpartisan Ground Zero ceremony in New York.

Against this backdrop of national memorial events, Trump’s personal recollections of that day continue. In the Fox News this month, Trump offered additional detail on his recollection of that morning, describing how he watched the second plane strike from his Midtown apartment and concluded, "the world has just changed."

He also reiterated his claim that he traveled downtown "the following day" with construction crews to assist at Ground Zero.

On the afternoon of the attacks, speaking as a local real estate developer, Trump responded to an anchor's question about property damage by mentioning 40 Wall Street’s position in the skyline. A quarter-century later, as president addressing a national anniversary, his public accounts center on personal observation, immediate action, and hands-on recovery efforts.

Prakriti Deb is a journalist at Hindustan Times Digital, where she is part of the US Desk. She works on stories related to American politics, crime, sports, entertainment and weather. She particularly enjoys covering political developments that have global ripples. Through her work, she aims to break down complex events in a way that feels simple and understandable. Before joining the Hindustan Times, she worked with The Indian Express Digital, where she covered world affairs. She holds a postgraduate degree in Mass Communication with a specialisation in Journalism, along with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature. Outside the newsroom, Prakriti enjoys travelling and stepping out of her comfort zone. She finds her sense of being through storytelling in all its forms, including conversations, painting, theatre, dance and photography. She appreciates discussions that challenge her perspective and help her see the world a little differently.Read More