President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump honored the roughly 3,000 Americans killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks during a ceremony at the Pentagon.
The event marking the 25th anniversary of the deadliest attack on American soil was also attended by War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, and Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser when the attacks occurred.
“Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago; we will never, ever forget,” Trump said on Friday morning. “That’s why we fight today. We don’t have a choice. There can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win.
“We will honor their lives,” the president said. “We will cherish their beautiful memories, and we will protect this country and its freedoms for every future generation.”
Before Trump spoke, the names of the 9/11 Pentagon victims were read aloud, and attendees observed a moment of silence for the fallen.
Former President George W. Bush, who led the nation in the aftermath of the devastation, along with former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden, attended a 9/11 ceremony in New York at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
Rice, who also served under Bush as secretary of state, said “that fateful day, 25 years ago, will forever be emblazoned on the heart and the soul of America” during her remarks on Friday.
“No one old enough to remember that day will ever forget where they were when they learned of the unfolding tragedy,” she said. “The attack came quite literally out of the blue — an assault on our cities that we have not experienced since the War of 1812.”
Hegseth also paid tribute to the fallen who were killed at the Pentagon after terrorists hijacked planes and crashed into the twin towers in New York and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
FORMER PRESIDENTS, EXCLUDING TRUMP, WILL ATTEND 9/11 CEREMONY IN NEW YORK CITY
“Today, on this site, we honor the 184 murdered at the Pentagon, warriors and civilians, officers and enlisted moms and dads, brothers and sisters, whose faces we saw, whose names were read,” Hegseth said. “A flag for each surrounds this venue. We honor the survivors. We honor the first responders who ran toward the flames. Heroic firefighters, police officers, and EMTs, pulling out the wounded and the fallen out of the rubble and the toxic smoke.”
Trump concluded his speech by reminding the nation that no attack can break the American spirit. “The 25 years since have shown us the even greater power of the American spirit to endure and prevail and to win,” he said. “And today, our country is stronger than it has ever been before. It has never been as strong as it is right now.”