Trump’s 9/11 Speech Includes Lies and a Threat to Use Something Worse than Nuclear Bombs
(September 11, 2019) — Donald Trump talking about 9/11 is a lot like Trump talking about anything else—he can’t remember most of it, he lies about what he does remember, and he makes his own role in events seem 10,000 larger than it was. But for this special day, Trump did produce a few special moments.
First there was the point where Trump threatened to attack terrorists with something worse than nuclear weapons. “If for any reason they come back to our country, we will go wherever they are and use power the likes of which the US has never used before. And I’m not even talking about nuclear power. They will have never seen anything like what will happen to them.”
What is Trump talking about here? Weaponized Ebola? An annual subscription to Trump Magazine? The worst thing imaginable is if someone let slip to Trump that the United States is actually in possession of some kind of doomsday weapon—a black hole generator with a side of salt-encrusted razor blades. Because if there is anything like that, it’s certain to be the only thing Trump thinks about. All the time.
And then there was the part where Trump once again claimed he was looking out his Midtown window and saw the second plane collide with the Towers, an act that would not only require perfect timing, but Superman-style X-ray vision.
But mostly Trump’s 9/11 speech was memorable for how terrible it was. Terrible not in the sense of threatening people with worse-than-nuclear bombs, but in the sense that it was trite, uninspiring, and mostly appeared to be a mishmash of faux patriotic phrases reassembled in the least engaging manner possible. It wasn’t so much written to put people asleep, it appeared to have been written by someone who already was asleep.
In any case, as Trump remembers—wrongly—what happened on 9/11, it’s worth looking at another slice of history: The history of what Donald Trump has had to say about what happened on 9/11. It’s time for “Bragging, lying, and dancing: the Donald Trump 9/11 memorial memorial.”
The important thing to know about 9/11 is that it gave Donald Trump huge bragging rights. Asked if there was any damage to his 40 Wall Street structure while buildings are collapsing a few blocks away, Trump ignores the loss of lives and the threat to the city to get to something more important.
“40 Wall Street actually was the second tallest building in downtown Manhattan. And it was … actually before the World Trade Center it was the tallest. And then when they built the World Trade Center it became known as the second tallest. And now it’s the tallest.”
And everyone should remember how Trump ran to help first responders. Which is a thing that definitely did not happen. At all. Not in the least. “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.” Donald Trump did not move one piece of rubble. Donald Trump did not get so much as a smudge of dust on his jacket. The only running that Trump did on 9/11 was running away.
But none of those lies have left as much lasting harm as what 2015 television interview Trump declared. That Trump claimed, “I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
That never happened. Nothing like that happened. A few people in New Jersey were accused of celebrating the event, but it was a handful … and even that was a lie. The whole thing was a lie spread through email and through talk radio. It was not something real Muslims did. It was something that real bigots created out of whole cloth to increase rage and hatred. The idea that Muslims in the United States were celebrating what happened on 9/11 was a contributing factor to hundreds of hate crimes, and to support for policies from attacking Iraq to Trump’s Muslim ban.
When it comes to engendering rage and hatred through racism … Donald Trump is there. When it came to helping first responders on 9/11. No. He absolutely was not.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes
Trump’s 9/11 Tweet Slams Critics, Praises ‘All that I Have Done’
Donald Trump solemnly marks anniversary of September 11 attacks by whining about bad poll numbers
(September 11, 2019) — On this, the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, Donald Trump pauses to remember that awful day.
Because who will ever forget where they were that day, when an ABC News/Washington Post poll showed five Democratic presidential contenders leading Trump in head-to-head matchups?
God bless America.
Video: Crowd Boos When Military Enlistees Are Asked to Pledge their Allegiance to the “President of the United States”
