Photo : Nicholas Kamm ( Getty )

President Donald Trump, a person who is afraid of stairs, has long spewed mush-brain lies and bizarre boasts about everything, and that includes 9/11. Remember when he claimed he cleared rubble from Ground Zero, or the time he lied about seeing Muslims celebrating the Twin Towers falling, or when he said “hundreds” of his friends died in the the Twin Towers but wouldn’t name any of them, or the time he bragged about how his Manhattan building was the tallest since the World Trade Centers were destroyed? All of his insane ramblings are hard to keep track of so don’t feel bad if you don’t recall the specifics; let’s take a moment to remember Trump remembering 9/11.


Sept. 11, 2001

The day the Twin Towers fell, Trump went on the radio and said that the destruction of the towers meant his Manhattan building was the tallest.

“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,” Trump said in the WWOR interview. “And now it’s the tallest.”


A 2006 New York Daily News investigation revealed that Trump claimed $150,000 for his 40 Wall Street building from a government grant aimed to help small business recover after the attacks.

Sept. 11, 2013

November 2015

At a campaign rally, Trump lied about seeing “thousands and thousands of people” cheering the fall of the Twin Towers.

“Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”


The he lied more, saying he had actually seen it on TV.

“I heard Paterson. Excuse me. I’ve heard Jersey City. I’ve heard Paterson,” he said. “It was 14 years ago. But I saw it on television.”


On ABC News, he persisted with this lie, saying the cheering people were “Arab.”

“There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations,” Trump insisted. “They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down — as those buildings came down. And that tells you something. It was well covered at the time, George. Now, I know they don’t like to talk about it, but it was well covered at the time. There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.”


2001-2016



In the weeks, after the Sept. 11 attacks, Trump, on Howard Stern’s radio show, allowed that he had donated $10,000 to the Twin Towers charity fund. In October 2016, ABC reported that he had not donated the promised money.

“My office has reviewed the donations made in the nearly 12 months following the attacks – and we didn’t find evidence that he contributed a single cent to the victims, our first responders, and to our city through the Twin Towers Fund,” New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, a Democrat, said in a statement to ABC News today. “In the wake of 9/11, New Yorkers came together, healed, and rebuilt. If Donald Trump claimed to donate and didn’t, if he claimed to support New Yorkers in a time of crisis and refused, then that would be just plain wrong.”


In 2015, the Smoking Gun reported that Trump made a single $1,000 donation in 2006 to a scammy-sounding Scientology program designed to help first responders:

Since 2001, the Trump foundation’s tax returns contain a single donation that is identifiable with a 9/11 charity. In 2006, Trump gave $1000 to a controversial Scientology program that administered treatment to firemen who inhaled toxins while working on the World Trade Center pile. The New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Fund, co-founded by actor Tom Cruise, relied on a “Purification Rundown” invented by L. Ron Hubbard, the crackpot founder of Scientology.


Feb. 13, 2016

During a Republican Party debate, Trump said he lost “hundreds of friends” on 9/11, but then steadfastly refused to name anyone in the ensuing days. The Daily Beast reported:

Two days after Donald Trump claimed that he “lost hundreds of friends” at the World Trade Center as a result of the 9/11 attack, his campaign continued to ignore a Daily Beast request that he name even one. With silence comes the possibility that Trump told the most reprehensible lie of the campaign, just a few breaths from when he called both Sen. Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush liars. By his math, Trump is trying to tell us that at least one in 10 of the 2,983 who died on 9/11 were his friends.


April 2016

Trump said he helped clear rubble from Ground Zero.

“Everyone who helped clear the rubble — and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit — but I want to tell you: Those people were amazing,” Trump said. “Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn’t know what was going to come down on all of us — and they handled it.”


April 23, 2017

During an interview with the Associated Press, Trump bragged that his presidency was good for TV ratings, saying they were the highest they had been since “Since the World Trade Center came down.”

It had 9.2 million people. It’s the highest they’ve ever had. On any, on air, (CBS “Face the Nation” host John) Dickerson had 5.2 million people. It’s the highest for “Face the Nation” or as I call it, “Deface the Nation.” It’s the highest for “Deface the Nation” since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down. It’s a tremendous advantage.


Today


A truly touching tribute.