Trump Appears to Be Making Stuff Up About 9/11. Again. (September 2021)
www.vice.com

... "We were hearing creaks"I've never forgotten it, it was I think the United States Steel Building it was called at the time, it was 50 stories tall, and we heard creaks. I said, That building is going to come down,' and two big firemen grabbed me, and grabbed other people, and they just moved out of that area. Never came down, but I never heard a noise like that. And it was a scary situation."

It appears that this is a new claim -- it doesn't appear that he's made it publicly in his past recollections of the events. On 9/11 itself, Trump indicated that he watched that attack from afar"and actually made sure to note that the Twin Towers' collapse meant he now owned the tallest building in Lower Manhattan. ...

Though Trump did go down near Ground Zero in the days after the attack, there's no evidence that he helped"and some evidence that he didn't follow through on promises to help.

That included a 2001 pledge to Howard Stern to donate $10,000 to the Twin Towers Fund, the official 9/11 charity program. The program didn't receive that money in the months after 9/11, and had no record that he ever made the donation, according to a 2016 audit.

By contrast, Trump cashed in on a post-9/11 program created to help Manhattan businesses impacted by the attacks, receiving a $150,000 grant from the program for his 40 Wall Street property near the site. He claimed that it was "reimbursement" for his helping shelter people at the building. But records from the state office which administered the recovery program show that Trump's company asked for those funds not to pay for their good samaritan efforts but for "rent loss," "cleanup" and "repairs." ...

Trump has also previously claimed he lost "hundreds of friends" on 9/11, though he's refused to say who they were. ...

Fact check: There's no evidence Donald Trump helped with 9/11 response (September 2020)
www.usatoday.com

... President Donald Trump has made many public comments about his memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some of his claims have become popular memes among his supporters.

"Two days after the 9/11 attack Trump was at Ground Zero with hundreds of workers that he paid of his own pocket to help find and identify victims. He's been a patriot to the country he loves forever," a viral meme spread widely across Facebook reads.

Trump made a somewhat similar claim himself on Sept. 11, 2019, claiming that after seeing the attacks, he joined support efforts at Ground Zero alongside his employees.

"Soon after, I went down to Ground Zero with men who worked for me to try to help in any little way that we could," the president said during remarks at the Pentagon. "We were not alone. So many others were scattered around trying to do the same. They were all trying to help."

There is no evidence that Trump helped with efforts at Ground Zero. Emergency responders who coordinated response efforts have cast doubt on the president's claims.

The image often used in viral memes is also not at Ground Zero. ...

Trump also erroneously claimed that a building he owned, 40 Wall St., was now the tallest skyscraper in New York City. The building was slightly shorter than 70 Pine St., another building near 40 Wall St. in Lower Manhattan.

In the days following the attacks, emergency workers at Ground Zero sifted through rubble and debris, attempting to find the fallen.

"I was there for several months -- I have no knowledge of his being down there," Richard Alles, a New York Fire Department battalion chief during 9/11, told PolitiFact.

"There would be a record of it," Alles continued. "Everybody worked under direct supervision of the police and fire department and the joint commander for emergency services.

"Is there a chance he was ever down there by himself and I didn't know it? It's possible, but I know of no one who ever witnessed him there."

There are no reports from the time that show that a large contingent of workers hired by or working alongside Trump were helping with the cleanup. ...