US President Donald Trump has linked the United States’ response to the September 11, 2001 attacks to its ongoing conflict with Iran, saying the country must continue fighting until it achieves victory.
Speaking at the Pentagon on Friday during the 25th anniversary commemoration of the attacks, Trump vowed that the United States would never forget the nearly 3,000 people killed on September 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. That’s why we fight today,” Trump said.
“We don’t have a choice. There can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win,” he added.
Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, skipped the main anniversary commemorations in New York, where the majority of the 2,977 victims were killed when hijacked aircraft struck the World Trade Center.
One of the four hijacked planes crashed into the Pentagon, killing 184 people. Their names were commemorated during Friday’s ceremony with a single bell toll.
Trump Connects 9/11 To Iran
Trump said the United States’ “War on Terror” had continued into the present conflict with Iran, which has now entered its seventh month.
“Today we salute every member of the United States military who served in the ‘War on Terror.’ It is a war on sick, horrible terror,” Trump 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.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also used the ceremony to condemn Iran, saying American forces had spent the previous six months fighting what he described as the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism.
“Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism. Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century,” Hegseth said.
The conflict has since reached a stalemate, with Iran largely maintaining control of the Strait of Hormuz while oil prices remain elevated despite sporadic exchanges of fire with US forces.
Trump Escalates Domestic Political Attack
Trump also turned his remarks toward US domestic politics, a day after the Republican convention for the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance had accused Democrats of sympathising with the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks during the convention.
“A generation after 9/11, we also know that the final response to those atrocities and the ultimate victory over the perpetrators will not be found on a foreign battlefield,” Trump said.
He recounted the story of a firefighter who died in the attacks and whose son later became a US Navy veteran, saying it demonstrated that the United States could be a nation whose heroes were not “fanatics for an abstract cause.”
Trump had used similar language at Wednesday’s Republican convention, telling supporters: “With your vote in this election, you can tell these far-left lunatics and fanatics that America is not for sale to them or to anybody else.”
Republicans at the convention repeatedly criticised Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed over his previous social media posts concerning 9/11.
The September 11 Attacks
The September 11 attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists who hijacked four commercial aircraft.
Two planes were deliberately flown into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York, causing both buildings to collapse. A third aircraft struck the Pentagon near Washington, while passengers aboard the fourth plane fought the hijackers before it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks. Thousands more have since suffered or died from illnesses linked to exposure to toxic dust and other conditions associated with the aftermath of 9/11.
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