Trump marks 9/11 anniversary at Pentagon ceremony amid gloom of Charlie Kirk killing

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — President Donald Trump marked the 24th anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at the Pentagon, prior to his scheduled trip to New York for a similar event, and in the shadow of the nation’s first high profile political assassination in decades.

A serviceman rings a bell for each of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States during a ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Sept. 11, 2025, marking the 24th anniversary of the attacks. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters)

Trump announced at the event that he would posthumously award conservative activist Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, after he was fatally shot by a sniper Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. As of the following afternoon, authorities were still searching for a person of interest in the shooting, the FBI’s Salt Lake City office said on X.

Vice President JD Vance, who said in a social media post that he was a close friend of Kirk, cancelled his attendance at the New York ceremony to visit with Kirk’s family and escort his body back to Phoenix.

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic terror group al-Qaida hijacked airplanes for suicide attacks that left nearly 3,000 people dead in New York City, at the Pentagon just outside Washington, and in a field in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers thwarted the terrorists’ intention to strike another target in Washington, likely the U.S. Capitol.

“On that fateful day, savage monsters attacked the very symbols of our civilization. Yet here in Virginia and in New York and in the skies over Pennsylvania, Americans did not hesitate,” Trump said during the event. “They stood on their feet, and they showed the world that we will never yield. We will never bend. We will never give up. And our great American flag will never, ever fail.”

In New York City, al-Qaida hijackers rammed two commercial jetliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. At 8:46 a.m, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into floors 93 through 99 of the North Tower. At 9:03 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower. Within two hours, both towers collapsed, killing 2,753 people in New York alone that day.

“In the quarter of a century since those acts of mass murder, 9/11 family members have felt the weight of missed birthdays and empty bedrooms, journals left unfinished, and dreams left unfulfilled,” Trump said. “To every member that still feels a void in every day of your lives, the first lady and I unite with you in sorrow — and today, as one nation, we renew our sacred vow that we will never forget Sept. 11, 2001.”

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech during a ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Sept. 11, 2025, marking the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters)

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., marked the occasion by laying a wreath together at the 9/11 Memorial in the U.S. Capitol. In a statement, Johnson also honored “the many thousands of those heroes who have lost their lives due to the illnesses they contracted from exposure to toxic dust at Ground Zero.”

“America saw the face of evil; yet in our grief and anger, we revealed the best in ourselves. On this solemn anniversary, we take heart in knowing that even in that dark hour, the American people answered with all that is good, decent, and enduring in the human spirit,” he said.

Jeffries shared a photo of the pair on social media, adding, “We will never forget the lives lost during the terrorist attack on September 11th. And will always honor the heroism of our brave first responders.”

In a social media post, the U.S. bishops’ conference marked the anniversary by sharing a prayer the late Pope Benedict XVI said during a 2008 visit to Ground Zero.