Trump invokes 9/11 to defend Iran war at somber Pentagon tribute

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Sep 11, 2026

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NEW YORK — President Donald Trump on Friday hailed 9/11 victims, survivors and first responders in a poignant Pentagon ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks, but also invoked the tragedy to defend his controversial war with Iran.

Trump, who skipped the main memorial at ground zero, eloquently paid tribute to a long and varied list of those who perished in the worst terror attack on U.S. soil at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on board a hijacked plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“When future generations come here in 25, 100 or 250 years, they will stand in a nation that is free and unyielding in the face of evil,” Trump said. “They will still honor the heroes of 9/11, 2001 who no age will erase from the memory of time. It will never ever be forgotten.”

Hewing closely to a somber script, he recalled a young family that were headed to California and all died in the American Airlines jet that hijackers crashed into the Pentagon.

Trump also called on the family of slain FDNY Capt. Timothy Stackpole, who perished while trying to rescue others at the World Trade Center, to stand and accept applause from the crowd.

The president struck what some might consider a discordant note when he used the Sept. 11 attacks to bolster his rationale for attacking Iran earlier this year, even though Tehran had no known links to 9/11.

“Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago, we will never, ever forget.,” Trump said. “That’s why we fight today,”

“We salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never, ever have a nuclear weapon,” he added.

Trump was joined on stage by First Lady Melania Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine and former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Hegseth earlier made a more direct effort to tie the Iran war to the terror attacks, which were carried out by Al-Qaeda terrorists from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon and had no ties to Iran.

“Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism,” Hegseth said. “Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century, that cheered on 9/11.”

Trump and his administration have offered a shifting list of aims for the conflict including ending Iran’s nuclear program, changing the Islamic regime, ending its ability to strike neighbors and barring support for regional terror proxy groups. None of those goals has been achieved so far.

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