President Donald Trump will observe the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at the Pentagon rather than at ground zero in Manhattan, leaving Vice President JD Vance to represent the administration at the New York ceremony.
Trump confirmed the plan Friday after returning from a trip to Houston, when reporters beside Air Force One asked why he would not be in New York. He said he was going to the Pentagon instead, the Associated Press reported. In a social media post the same day, the president described Sept. 11 as a day to remember the victims and their families.
The change followed Trump's request to deliver remarks at the World Trade Center ceremony, CNN reported, citing people familiar with the planning. The National September 11 Memorial and Museum has barred elected officials from speaking at the annual reading of the names since 2012, a policy the institution says keeps the commemoration nonpartisan and focused on the families. The New York Times first reported that the president would skip the ground zero event.
Vance will attend the ceremony at the World Trade Center site, and other administration officials will travel to the memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the White House said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is expected to attend the ground zero ceremony despite calls from some critics for him to stay away, ABC7 New York reported. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama are also expected in Lower Manhattan, according to The Washington Times.
The Pentagon was one of three sites struck on Sept. 11, 2001, along with the twin towers and a field near Shanksville, where passengers and crew fought the hijackers. Nearly 3,000 people were killed.
Trump, a native New Yorker, last attended the ground zero ceremony in 2024, during his presidential campaign. He did not attend the 20th anniversary in 2021, visiting a fire station and a police precinct on the East Side instead. Last year he marked the anniversary at the Pentagon, where he laid a wreath and delivered remarks.
Vance had planned to attend the New York ceremony last year but traveled to Salt Lake City instead after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.