ARLINGTON, United States – United States President Donald Trump led the nation in solemn remembrance from the Pentagon on Friday, September 11, 2026, marking the milestone 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by honoring the thousands who perished and declaring that a quarter-century of time has not diminished America’s resolve to defend its people against global terrorism, White House correspondents confirmed.
The national observance brought together senior military commanders, cabinet officials, and bereaved family members at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia, where a giant American flag was unfurled across the restored western facade of the headquarters where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed 25 years ago, claiming 184 lives.
Okay News reports that while Trump chose to commemorate the milestone anniversary at the Pentagon, former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden gathered alongside Vice President JD Vance at Ground Zero in New York City, where bells tolled to mark the precise minutes each hijacked airliner struck the World Trade Center towers and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Addressing the gathering from a podium flanked by military honor guards, President Trump reflected on the historic passage of time since the coordinated assaults fundamentally altered the global security landscape.
“In 25 years, a generation has passed since the terror attacks,” Trump said. “Yet time has not dimmed the honour of that day our country came face-to-face with true evil.”
Renewing what he described as a sacred national oath first sworn in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, the president stressed that ongoing overseas military deployments reflect the enduring lesson that vigilance requires decisive deterrence against hostile foreign actors.
Taking the podium following the president, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reflected on the post-9/11 military mobilization, framing the conflicts of the past two decades as righteous retribution while explicitly connecting the historic fight against terrorism to ongoing United States military operations against Iran.
“We fought foreign wars, a generation of sacrifice, of valor, selfless and steadfast,” Hegseth said. “Even if imperfect, those conflicts were our retribution. 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.”
The Pentagon ceremony also featured an emotional address from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as National Security Adviser during the Bush administration when the attacks occurred, recounting the chaos of that morning in the White House and the enduring personal grief borne by thousands of families.
“Behind every name that we recite, there is a story, a life that mattered, a future unfulfilled, a void, a vast empty space in the heart of a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a sibling, a colleague, or a friend,” Rice told the audience as a ceremonial bell tolled for each victim. “We come together today to say that they will never be forgotten, and to honour their memory.”
The ceremony was attended by First Lady Melania Trump, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, culminating in a wreath-laying ritual honoring the 125 service members and civilian personnel killed inside the military complex alongside the 59 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft.
