President Donald Trump will attend the September 11 Pentagon memorial ceremony on the 25th anniversary of the 2001 attacks, after the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York declined to allow him to deliver remarks. Vice President JD Vance will represent the administration at the Ground Zero ceremony, where former presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush are expected to attend. The museum has maintained a policy since 2012 of barring political speeches during its annual remembrance events to avoid partisanship.
Trump’s attendance shift follows his prior year’s actions, where he delivered a speech at the Pentagon’s ceremony in 2025, marking the 24th anniversary. The White House has not issued a statement regarding Trump’s specific plans for this year’s anniversary, though spokeswoman Anna Kelly emphasized a focus on remembrance in a statement to The New York Times.
The National September 11 Memorial and Museum hosts the Ground Zero ceremony annually, which has historically included attendance by political leaders without speeches. The Pentagon’s ceremony, held at the War Department headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, has allowed political remarks, including those by Trump in previous years. The Shanksville, Pennsylvania, memorial site, where the fourth plane crashed, has also hosted speeches by presidents and other officials in past commemorations.
The 25th anniversary of the attacks, which killed 2,977 people across New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, will be observed on September 11, 2026. The attacks involved four commercial airplanes hijacked by al-Qaeda operatives, with two striking the World Trade Center towers, one hitting the Pentagon, and the fourth crashing in a field in Shanksville after passengers attempted to retake control.
Trump’s decision to attend the Pentagon ceremony follows reports that he had initially planned to visit Ground Zero but adjusted his schedule to accommodate a speech. His team had conducted advance visits to the museum, though the final decision to exclude political remarks remained with the memorial’s organizers. The Pentagon’s ceremony will allow Trump to deliver a speech, as it has in previous years, including his 2025 address where he reflected on the heroism of those who responded to the attacks.