President Trump tied the war with Iran to the memory of the September 11 attacks during a Pentagon ceremony marking the 25th anniversary.
Trump, 78, spoke Thursday at the Department of Defense headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, where hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building on September 11, 2001. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had drawn a similar connection earlier in the proceedings, according to the source account.
“We don’t have a choice. It can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win,” Trump said at the Pentagon.
The president framed the current military engagement as a continuation of the resolve forged in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. “Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago, we will never, ever forget. That’s why we fight today,” he said.
Trump pressed the point about national character under pressure. “On days like 9/11, we learn what a country is truly made of. We’re learning right now what we’re made of, and we have to be strong and we have to be smart,” he added.
The remarks came as the administration continues military operations against Iran that began earlier this year. The Pentagon ceremony honored the 184 victims who died at the military headquarters when a hijacked commercial airliner crashed into the building’s west side during the coordinated attacks that also destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York City and downed a fourth plane in Pennsylvania.
The 2001 attacks, carried out by the al-Qaeda terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden, prompted the U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan and launched what became known as the global war on terror. The vast majority of the hijackers were Saudi nationals; none were Iranian.
Thursday’s anniversary observance represented the first time a sitting president had explicitly connected the current Iran conflict to the 9/11 commemoration in formal remarks at the Pentagon. The speech blended memorial tribute with live-policy messaging as Trump addressed military families, survivors, and first responders gathered at the memorial site where each victim’s name is inscribed on a bench-like structure arranged by the year of their birth.
Hegseth, 44, preceded Trump in making the Iran-9/11 linkage during the same ceremony, the source account indicated, though his specific remarks were not quoted.
The president’s appearance at the Pentagon formed part of a day of observances across the country on the quarter-century mark of the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.
Trump is scheduled to continue campaigning for Republican congressional candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections.