Twenty-five years after the attacks that transformed the United States and were witnessed around the world, the country is preparing to mark the anniversary of 11 September in a strikingly different political climate. The ceremony at New York’s Ground Zero, where the World Trade Centre towers once stood, will again bring families of victims together to remember those who died. But the anniversary is also exposing divisions that would have been difficult to imagine during the first commemorations after the attacks.
When attendees observe a minute’s silence at 8.46 on Friday, the exact time when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower 25 years ago, President Donald Trump will not be among them. Vice-President J. D. Vance will attend the ceremony in New York, while Trump will remain in Washington. He is expected instead to attend the 11 September commemoration at the Pentagon, another site targeted during the attacks.
Trump’s absence marks a departure from the practice of his predecessors over the past quarter-century. Reports that the president was unhappy because he could not speak at the Ground Zero ceremony have been denied by Trump himself. The ceremony has been non-partisan since 2012 and prohibits political figures from making speeches, with politicians attending as witnesses while relatives of the victims read the names of those who died.
Perhaps more than any other episode surrounding this year’s anniversary, however, the dispute between Rudolph Giuliani and Zohran Mamdani illustrates the political distance that now separates the country.
Giuliani, the Republican mayor of New York during the attacks and a prominent figure in the city’s response to the disaster, has attacked Mamdani, the Democratic mayor who took office less than a year ago. Giuliani, now a close ally of Trump and previously his lawyer, told Newsmax that he was offended by Mamdani’s intention to attend the commemoration.
“Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, I’m offended that he is going to come,” Giuliani said.
He also compared Mamdani, who is Muslim, with the hijackers responsible for the attacks. Giuliani said the hijackers “did not hide” their hostility towards the United States, while claiming Mamdani was “trying to hide it”. He further alleged, without providing supporting evidence, that Mamdani backed a Muslim plot to “take over certain parts of the United States and Europe”.
The remarks followed an online petition signed by almost 100,000 people calling for Mamdani to stay away from Friday’s ceremony. Its organisers argue that the anniversary should be centred on “respect for the victims, recognition of the gravity of the attacks and a clear rejection of the ideologies that contributed to such violence”.
They have also criticised Mamdani’s political positions, including his criticism of the Israeli government and support for the Palestinian cause. The petition cites his “reluctance to clearly and unequivocally condemn phrases such as globalise the intifada” and what it describes as his “support for or links with people who belittle American institutions or lack sufficient critical spirit towards extremist ideologies”.
Another point of controversy is Mamdani’s appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s legal adviser. Kassem had represented a convicted Al Qaeda member whose brother-in-law was among the terrorists who hijacked the aircraft that crashed into the Pentagon.
Mamdani, nevertheless, has made clear that he intends to attend Friday’s commemoration, following the example of every New York mayor over the past 25 years. He has established an annual 11 September day of remembrance, updated the city’s emergency preparedness plans and attended, or plans to attend, nearly a dozen commemorative events, particularly at fire stations that lost members in the attacks.
“I will proudly honour the families, survivors and first responders and reaffirm that we will never forget that day,” Mamdani said in July.
The ceremony itself will remain focused on remembrance. Relatives will read the names of the victims, while seven minutes of silence will mark key moments of the attacks: the impacts on the two World Trade Centre towers, their collapse, the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93. The final minute will honour those who have died since the attacks from illnesses and injuries linked to them.
For much of the past 25 years, the commemoration brought together leading figures from both major parties, who temporarily set aside political differences to remember the dead. This year, all living former presidents are expected to attend: Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and Republican George W. Bush.
Trump, however, will become the first sitting president not to attend the New York ceremony. His decision comes as the anniversary is increasingly shaped not only by remembrance of the attacks but by disputes over identity, politics and who can claim a place in the national memory.
His public confrontation with New York’s mayor and his attack on journalist Maggie Haberman, whom he called “false” and “unattractive, both inside and out”, have added another layer to an anniversary once associated with national solidarity.
A quarter-century after 11 September 2001, the ceremonies will still honour the dead. But the political divisions surrounding them offer a stark reminder of how profoundly the country that gathered together after the attacks has changed.
