Every living former president will attend a Sept. 11, 2001, memorial event in New York City on Friday, the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, multiple sources familiar with the matter confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
Former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, who was commander in chief during the attacks, will reunite once again to honor the fallen at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
President Donald Trump, however, will instead attend the Pentagon’s memorial event at the Defense Department headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Trump had originally wanted to mark the event at Ground Zero with a speech in New York, his hometown, but speeches will not be permitted.
The National September 11 Memorial and Museum has long prohibited lawmakers from delivering speeches, opting for politicians to read poems or memorable speeches.
Former first ladies Jill Biden, Hillary Clinton, a former New York senator amid 9/11, and Laura Bush will also be in attendance. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will also attend the Friday event despite pressure from some of the family members of 9/11 victims.
Vice President JD Vance will stand in for the Trump administration at the Friday event and previously joked about chatting with Biden.
“As you guys can probably guess, I’m really looking forward to hanging out with Joe Biden,” Vance said last week during a White House press briefing. “I’m sure that we’ll have many, many intense intellectual conversations, and, you know, it’ll be great. We’ll have a great time with Joe Biden and the other presidents.”
Both Vance and Trump will be returning from the Republican National Committee convention in Dallas before attending their respective 9/11 events.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed when terrorists hijacked planes and crashed into the twin towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, horrifying a shell-shocked nation. It was the deadliest attack on American soil by a foreign adversary.
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On Friday, in New York City, the names of the fallen will be read at the ceremony, and attendees will participate in six moments of silence. A seventh moment of silence will honor those lost to 9/11 health effects, according to the museum.
Earlier this week, Trump honored two fallen American heroes during a speech at the Ellipse, just south of the White House lawn. The president announced that the Coast Guard will commission a fast-response cutter named for Jeffrey Palazzo, a Coast Guard reservist and New York City firefighter, over the weekend. He also announced a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom award to Welles Crowther, an equities trader and a volunteer firefighter who saved 18 people before losing his life on Sept. 11, 2001.