The facts
President Donald Trump marked the 25th anniversary at the Pentagon, not Ground Zero. CNN reported the choice was partly so he could deliver remarks. Politicians have not been allowed to speak at the New York ceremony since 2012, UPI reported. Vice President JD Vance went to Manhattan with former presidents Bush, Obama, Clinton, and Biden. Other officials went to Shanksville.
At the Pentagon, Trump said, "That's why we fight today. We don't have a choice. There can only be victory." He saluted troops "working right now to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon." CBS and Mediaite reported scattered applause from a mostly quiet crowd.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke first. "Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world's most prolific state sponsor of terrorism," he said, of an "Islamic theocracy" that "cheered on 9/11." Then: "We're still sending terrorists where they belong, to hell, and tankers to the bottom of the ocean, where they belong."
The FBI lists 19 al Qaeda hijackers. Fifteen were Saudi. Iran is a separate war.
Our take
New York banned speeches at Ground Zero because politicians cannot attend a funeral without turning it into a rally. Trump wanted to talk, so he skipped the names and drove to the building that still has a hole in it. The Pentagon lets you give a speech. That was the whole calculation.
He stood over 184 people killed by al Qaeda and said that's why America fights Iran today. Wrong country, you clown. The hijackers were al Qaeda. Fifteen of them were Saudi Muslims. Iran did not board those planes. He needed a nuke applause line and he hung it on a memorial. The room gave him a scattered clap, which is what happens when you turn a funeral into an ad and the audience still has a little shame left.
Hegseth opened with oil tankers on the ocean floor. That is a shipping report at a wake. Iran's government is a theocratic death cult. Say it in a briefing. Do not bolt it onto people who were at their desks when a plane hit the wall.
The sitting president was across the river from a widow naming Saudi Arabia, talking about a different war, because that is the fight he has. New York took the microphone so this would not happen. He found another one.
