Trump links 9/11 anniversary to Iran war

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks to connect the remembrance of nearly 3,000 victims with the United States’ ongoing war against Iran, while other officials marked the day with calls for unity, accountability and public service.

Trump stayed in Washington for the anniversary ceremony at the Pentagon, where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building in 2001. The attack killed all 64 people aboard the plane and 125 inside the Pentagon. Across the country, ceremonies honored the 2,977 people killed in the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history, when hijackers crashed two planes into New York’s World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon and a fourth into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought back.

At the Pentagon, Trump described the attacks as “true evil” and said the nation would continue to honor the dead. “We will honour their lives, we will cherish their beautiful memories, and we will protect this country and its freedoms for every future generation,” he said.

But Trump also pointed to the war his administration launched against Iran more than six months ago. “We salute every member of the United States military who served in the ‘war on terror’,” he 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.”

He closed by drawing a broader link between the 2001 attacks and current U.S. military action. “We will never, ever forget,” Trump said. “That’s why we fight today. We don’t have a choice. There can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win.”

Vice President JD Vance traveled instead to the New York ceremony at Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood. Al Jazeera reported that all living former presidents attended the New York event, where political speeches are not allowed.

Hegseth, speaking before Trump at the Pentagon, called for “eternal vigilance” and said threats remained both abroad and inside the United States. “There are still enemies who hate us,” he said. “Every day, enemies plot to curb our power and kill our citizens, including from Islamic terrorists abroad and at home.”

He described Iran as an “Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century” and said the U.S. and Israel had “laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism.” Hegseth claimed Iran’s defenses “are gone” and, according to Al Jazeera, said the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has stopped commercial traffic since the war began.

“We’re still sending terrorists where they belong, to hell, and tankers to the bottom of the ocean where they belong,” Hegseth said. “And we’re ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The economic pressure tightens every day.”

In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended the memorial alongside former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led the city during the attacks. Giuliani shook hands with Mamdani despite previously calling on him not to attend. Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor, had faced criticism from some conservative politicians and victims’ relatives, and a Change.org petition expressing concern about his attendance drew more than 100,000 signatures.

Mamdani did not speak at the ceremony under its rules for politicians, but released a video calling on New Yorkers to honor the victims through service. “Twenty-five years later, we have a sacred obligation to those who were stolen from us,” he said. “That is how we’ll remember.”

At the New York ceremony, Terry Strada, whose husband was killed on 9/11 and who leads a group of victims’ families, urged Trump to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its alleged support of the hijackers. “It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that,” she said. “Tell the Saudis to stop lying.”

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed also marked the anniversary on X, calling the attacks a “cruel act of terror” and writing, “Nothing can justify the murder of innocent civilians. Nothing.” He urged Americans to build a country that is “more inclusive, more empowering, more just.”