NEW YORK (Realist English). The United States marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Friday with solemn ceremonies in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, remembering the dead, the survivors and the first responders of a day that reshaped American foreign policy, national security and society.
At the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, Vice‑President JD Vance joined former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, along with victims’ families, survivors and officials from past and present city and state administrations. The ceremony followed its traditional format: no political speeches, the reading of all 2,977 names, and moments of silence marking the key points in the attack timeline.
For the first time, a seventh silent moment was added to honour the thousands who have died in the years since from cancers and other illnesses linked to exposure to the toxic dust released by the collapse of the Twin Towers. More than 9,400 people have died from 9/11‑related illnesses, according to the federal programme established to provide medical care to those affected.
The Pentagon and Shanksville
President Donald Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, observed the anniversary at the Pentagon, where 184 people died when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building. Trump and his wife listened as the names of the victims were read out, and service members unfurled a large American flag over the portion of the Pentagon’s west side that was struck. It was the second consecutive year that Trump marked the day at the Pentagon rather than in New York, where he last attended the Ground Zero ceremony in 2024.
Trump issued a proclamation naming Friday “Patriot Day 2026”. The decision not to attend the New York ceremony became one of the notable features of this year’s commemorations, with the sitting president and his four living predecessors honouring the victims in different locations.
Trump administration officials also attended a ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers and crew stormed the cockpit, preventing the hijackers from reaching Washington.
A New Mayor and an Old Controversy
New York’s first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, attended the Ground Zero ceremony alongside the former presidents and Vice‑President Vance, despite a campaign urging him to stay away spearheaded by the right‑wing New York Post and former mayor Rudy Giuliani. A petition with more than 100,000 signatures accused Mamdani of associating with individuals “dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies”.
“It’s concerning to me that the mayor is being treated differently simply because he is Muslim,” city council member Shahana Hanif told CNN. Mamdani, who was an elementary school student in the city on 9/11, said this week he wanted the anniversary to focus on victims’ families, first responders and residents who helped one another after what he called a “horrific act of terror”. He drew plaudits for recently revealing thousands of documents showing what city officials knew about toxicity levels in Lower Manhattan after the attacks.
International Tributes
Leaders across the world paid tribute to the victims. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “We remember that 25 years ago, the world stopped. We pay homage to the 3,000 people who left their homes that morning and never returned”. French President Emmanuel Macron said he had not forgotten the “lives cut short, nor the courage of those who risked everything to bring help”.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham warned that “terror still knocks at the door of democracy” as he expressed Britain’s unity with the United States. “On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we remember the nearly 3,000 people who were killed, including 67 Britons,” Burnham said. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in office at the time of the attacks, said the anniversary was also a time to “commemorate the unshakeable and essential bond” between the two countries.
US Ambassador to the UK Warren Stephens said Britain had rallied in support “in one of America’s darkest hours” and that “despite our disagreements and debates,” the transatlantic relationship “has kept us safe for centuries”.
A Day That Divided Time
In Canada, thousands gathered in Gander, Newfoundland, to mark the role the town played when 38 planes carrying more than 6,500 passengers were diverted there after North American airspace was closed.
For many Americans, 9/11 remains the most historic event of their lifetime. According to a new poll cited by AP, about half of US adults remember the day as the defining moment of their lives. Yet some 100 million Americans were not even born or are too young to remember the attacks — a generational distance that was evident in interviews across the country.
“The next generation just can’t fathom what actually transpired and how someone could be impacted by that, and so I actually find them asking more questions,” Logan Miller, 32, who lost his uncle in the attacks and his grandfather to a 9/11‑related illness, told AFP.
Al‑Qaeda marked the anniversary by releasing a video showing images of its late leader Osama bin Laden and his son Hamza, who Trump said in 2019 had also been killed.
Memory in a Divided Nation
Twenty-five years on, the United States has not forgotten. But the unity that briefly defined the weeks after September 11 has long since given way to a fractured political landscape. The decision by President Trump to mark the anniversary at the Pentagon rather than Ground Zero, and the controversy surrounding Mayor Mamdani’s attendance, reflected the divisions that now shape American public life.
Yet amid the politics, the core of the day remained unchanged: the reading of the names, the tolling of bells, the silent moments for the dead — and, for the first time, for those who have died in the years since, victims not of the attacks themselves but of the poisoned air that lingered over Lower Manhattan.
The United States has not forgotten. It has simply learned to remember in a different way.
