Double Fist Bump on 9/11 Memorial
On Tuesday, President Trump was pictured greeting supporters with a triumphant double fist bump and clenched jaw as he arrived to a 9/11 memorial service in Pennsylvania. Although POTUS was commemorating the Flight 93 passengers, who are credited with thwarting the hijackers' attempt to use the aircraft in an attack after being alerted to the fate of the planes that hit the World Trade Center, Trump's photo sparked a widespread social media backlash, with many users arguing that the President had failed to exhibit any real compassion or empathy.
'The Tallest Building'Brag
In 2016, it emerged that Donald Trump, then a real estate developer, gave an interview hours after the 9/11 attacks. When asked by a local news station whether his skyscraper on Wall Street had suffered any damage, Trump appeared to show little tact and said that due to the the WTC's destruction, his building had become the tallest in downtown Manhattan.
"I mean, 40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually before the World Trade Center the tallest, and then when they built the World Trade Center it became known as the second-tallest, and now it's the tallest."
Cashing in on the Tragedy?
The New York Daily News reported in 2016, citing government records, that Donald Trump lied about the $150,000 he received under a government program for post-9/11 small business recovery. During the presidential campaign, the Republican candidate claimed that he had been awarded the sum for helping others after the attack. However, a government official insisted that Trump had applied for the funds to cover "rent loss," "cleanup" and "repair," although none of Trump's properties were actually damaged in the attack.
Off-the-Record Personal Assist
At a rally in 2016, Donald Trump took a moment to talk about his personal connection to the massive rescue efforts after the collapse of the WTC buildings.
"Everyone who helped clear the rubble — and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit — but I wanna tell you: Those people were amazing. Clearing the rubble, trying to find additional lives. You didn't know what was going to come down on all of us — and they handled it," he said.
Although there are videos proving that Donald Trump indeed visited the site several days after the attack and did interviews, no evidence has been provided so far that he helped out, which witnesses would certainly have remembered.
'No 9/11 Under Trump' Remark
Donald Trump has long been suspected of exploiting the 9/11 story to make political scores. At a rally in Florida in August 2016, he insisted that the tragedy wouldn't have happened if he were US President.
"Those people that knocked down the World Trade Center most likely under the Trump policy wouldn't have been here to knock down the World Trade Center, just so you understand," he told supporters, as cited by Politico.
His comment raised the eyebrows of some critics as 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were citizens of Saudi Arabia, a country excluded from Trump's controversial anti-terror travel ban from certain Muslim-majority countries.