25 Years After 9/11, Americans Mark the Dead and Debate What Came After
Americans on Friday marked 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks with ceremonies at ground zero, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, remembering nearly 3,000 people
Americans on Friday marked 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks with ceremonies at ground zero, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, remembering nearly 3,000 people killed that day and thousands more who later died of related causes. The grief was familiar. The politics were not.
Families of the dead joined first responders and others for solemn remembrances as the country revisited a day that still shapes U.S. security, foreign policy and public life. In New York City, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the commemorations honored those killed when hijacked commercial airliners struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field outside Pittsburgh.
Trump links remembrance to present-day conflict
At the Pentagon, President Trump pledged that Americans would never forget the losses suffered on Sept. 11 and praised the sacrifice and resolve that followed. But he also used the anniversary to defend military operations against what he called the threat of radical Islam. “Today we renew the sacred oath we first swore in their names a quarter-century ago,” he told the crowd. “We will never ever forget. That’s why we fight today.”
The remarks underscored a split that has sharpened over time: for many Americans, Sept. 11 remains a day of mourning, unity and service. For others, it also recalls the wars, surveillance debates and political divisions that followed. The attacks changed the course of the nation. Their legacy is still contested.
Memory, sacrifice and the long shadow
Across the country, local gatherings echoed the same message — remember the dead, honor the responders, keep the names alive. In Florida and South Georgia, communities held moments of silence, rang a historic church bell and had firefighters climb stadium steps in tribute to fallen first responders. In Utah, people gathered in a field of American flags to honor those lost.
But the anniversary also arrived at a moment when the country remains split over what 9/11 came to mean. The day that inspired a surge of national unity also launched two and a half decades of argument over war, security and the limits of force. Even as the ceremonies stayed focused on the dead, the political meaning of the attacks hovered in the background.
Trump closed his Pentagon remarks by returning to the idea of national resolve, telling the crowd, “We were all New Yorkers that day.”
