The Latest: The US marks 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks
Sep 11, 2026, 5:31 AM
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, attend a ceremony to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Credit: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Americans are commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.
Friday’s milestone anniversary brings memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.
President Donald Trump observed the anniversary by attending a ceremony at the Pentagon. It’s the second year in a row for Trump to mark the day at the Pentagon.
Here’s the latest:
The U.S. appeals court in Washington declared that Energy Secretary Chris Wright exceeded his authority when he forced the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell plant to stay open past its scheduled retirement date last year.
Wright said the plant was needed to ensure reliable electricity in the region. Wright has since directed at least five other coal-fired plants to stay open past their scheduled retirements.
Environmental groups and three states — Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota — went to court to try to overturn the Michigan order.
A three-judge panel from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the states and the groups, saying there was no real emergency under the law.
Environmentalists say the orders are raising ratepayer bills and adding air and water pollution that could have been avoided.
This year’s 9/11 remembrance ceremony in New York included a new moment of silence to honor people who were exposed to toxic dust released by the twin towers’ collapse and have since died of cancer and other illness.
Questions remain on how many people have health problems linked to the dust.
The new moment of silence came close to the end of the ceremony Friday afternoon in Manhattan.
The ceremony has long been punctuated with moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline and this year organizers added another moment to honor people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses.
Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.
A woman whose husband died in the attacks criticized Saudi Arabia and questioned the country’s tight relationship with the U.S. during an annual remembrance ceremony in Manhattan, calling on President Donald Trump to “tell the Saudis to stop lying.”
Terry Strada, who lost her husband Tom Strada on 9/11, said U.S. presidents have chosen “to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” as the crowd at the ground zero broke out in applause.
“It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that,” she said before telling Vice President JD Vance, who was in attendance, to “carry that message back.”
“Stand with the families, stand with the survivors,” she said. “Stand with Americans.”
Although 15 of the 19 attackers on 9/11 were Saudis, the Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks.
The president sought to offer a hopeful note as he finished his remarks at the solemn remembrance at the Pentagon.
“September 11th reminded us of the terrible power of hate,” Trump said. “The 25 years since have shown us the even greater power of the American spirit to endure and prevail, and to win.”
“And today, our country is stronger than it has ever been before. It has never been as strong as it is right now,” Trump added.
The president took a moment in his speech to give a nod to American troops at war.
“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.”
“In those harrowing days after the attacks, we saw the authentic spirit of our nation,” Trump said at the Pentagon ceremony. “We were all New Yorkers that day. Every one of us. We were all New Yorkers. We were all family.”
In his remarks at the Pentagon, Hegseth took a moment to turn to the ongoing conflict in Iran and sought to connect it to the 2001 attacks on America.
“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, a regime that has sponsored terrorist attacks against Americans for decades, killing thousands, including our comrades in Iraq, in Afghanistan.”
Rice, who was serving as White House national security adviser on 9/11, said at the Pentagon ceremony that she still feels deep pain that “those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9/11.”
Rice added, “I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen, still feel, and for the trauma that our country endured.”
Her message nodded to the millions of Americans who weren’t born yet at the time of the attacks.
Maine has a direct connection to 9/11. Two of the hijackers spent the day before the attacks in Maine. They would fly out of Portland Jetport the next day and transfer in Boston, where they boarded the plane that later struck the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Six Maine residents died in the attacks.
“Although more than a hundred million Americans are too young to remember that dark day, today, we take a moment to remember and to honor those who perished that day, as well as the first responders who ran towards danger and stayed through the devastating aftermath, and the men and women who stepped up and who continue to step up to keep us safe,” Mills said.
Speaking at the Pentagon memorial, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called on Americans to honor those lost through “selfless acts of compassion and courage for each other and for our fellow Americans.”
“Today is not just a story of loss,” Caine said. “It is also a story of great American courage, selfless service and those who’ve made the choice to carry those memories forward.”
The president and first lady Melania Trump, sitting on stage, listened as the names of the 184 people killed at the Pentagon on 9/11 were read one by one, a bell tolling between each.
Images of each victim were displayed on a large screen beside the stage.
Police officers stationed around the perimeter of the event are checking tickets and credentials to ensure only invited guests, such as victim relatives, survivors and first responders, and others connected to the event are allowed through. That’s before a full security screening at the entrance to the site, which is surrounded by the type of steel fencing now familiar at high-profile events.
Along with that, the streets are filled with the apparatus of police and emergency response — NYPD vehicles lining the western perimeter, heavily armed and armored counterterrorism officers patrolling the nearby subway stations, and flashing police lights abound.
New Yorkers going about their days mixed with 9/11 family members, firefighters and other first responders on the streets and sidewalks of lower Manhattan.
People jogged by in brightly colored running attire. Others hoisted American flags. People clasped iced coffees and bagged pastries. A woman outside a church sold buttons commemorating the occasion. A man thanked the two police officers guarding the perimeter for their service.
He was the CEO of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald when the attack on the World Trade Center killed 658 of its 960 employees.
He survived because he was taking his son to school when the attack happened. His brother, Gary Lutnick, was among those who died.
At the memorial Friday, Lutnick wiped away a tear, but also smiled as he looked fondly at the names of Cantor Fitzgerald employees inscribed on the parapets that ring the footprints of the fallen towers.
Four former presidents are in Manhattan for the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at the city’s ceremony at ground zero.
Former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Joe Biden could been seen mingling with attendees at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan on Friday morning.
Vice President JD Vance is also attending the ceremony in New York, while President Donald Trump will attend an observance at the Pentagon.
In a downpour at daybreak, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and top military officials stood outside and watched as the giant American flag was unfurled on the building struck by a hijacked plane a quarter century ago.
Americans are commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.
Friday’s milestone anniversary will bring memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.
For others it’s an occasion for private reflection — or, in many schools, education — about the attack that unfolded in a single morning but left nearly 3,000 dead and a decades-long trail of aftermath, from personal grief to far-flung wars.
Planned remembrances extend far beyond the attack sites, from beams of light projecting from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington to a stair climb at Mississippi State University’s football stadium to a ceremony at Honolulu’s 9/11 memorial.
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President Donald Trump is set to observe Friday’s 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by attending a ceremony at the Pentagon commemorating the lives lost when al-Qaida militants hijacked planes and killed nearly 3,000 people in three locations, upending American foreign policy and national security.
It’s the second year in a row for Trump to mark the day at the Pentagon. The president, who is originally from New York, last attended the ground zero ceremony there in 2024.
Vice President JD Vance is set to attend the New York observance alongside former presidents, while other administration officials will go to the ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Vance had planned to be in New York for the anniversary last year but instead flew to Salt Lake City to be with the family of Charlie Kirk after the conservative activist was assassinated.
During last year’s commemoration at the Pentagon, Trump delivered remarks recounting moments from the day of the attacks, including snippets of conversations from passengers who were aboard the hijacked airplanes.
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