- The claim that Donald Trump was rescued by firefighters in or around the United States Steel Building (also known as One Liberty Plaza) after 9/11 in Manhattan is unproven.
- According to some versions of the claim, Trump said firefighters pulled him from the rubble at Ground Zero. That was a misrepresentation of his actual words.
- The rumor stems from a speech Trump made on Sept. 8, 2026, while commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11. In it, he said the United States Steel Building was “creaking” a lot and “we thought it was going to fall down” when two firefighters “grabbed [him] under the arms” and got him out of there.
- Video interviews of Trump place him a few blocks from the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan in the days following the attack. However, there is no concrete evidence that Trump was inside or around One Liberty Plaza and no firefighters have come forward to corroborate his account. We also know that the building itself was not in danger of collapse in the days after 9/11, despite rumors at the time.
- We reached out to the White House, which did not respond to questions about Trump’s whereabouts and actions in the wake of 9/11. A spokesperson called the speculation from the media a “disgrace.”
In 2026, the U.S. marked the 25th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. As U.S. President Donald Trump commemorated the occasion in a speech on Sept. 8, he claimed that he was rescued by firefighters in New York City just after the attack.
Snopes readers asked us to confirm if Trump was indeed rescued by firefighters from the possible collapse of the United States Steel Building, a historic name for the building now
Other readers claimed Trump said firefighters pulled “him from the rubble at 9/11.”
Posts sharing versions of the rumor appeared on platforms including Facebook and X.
Some posts incorrectly claimed Trump said the firefighters pulled him from the rubble at Ground Zero. That was a misrepresentation or misunderstanding of what Trump actually said.
On Sept. 8, 2026, Trump recounted his purported rescue by two firefighters during a speech (emphasis ours):
I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened.
And they were — they had no hesitation. Everybody went down with me; we went down as a big group of people. Wasn’t too much we could do, I’ll be honest. It was raw; nobody had seen anything like it ever. We had other buildings — the United States Steel Building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down. The truth is, it creaked a lot; it creaked, it still creaks, but it never came down. And I’ll never forget two firemen — we thought it was coming down on top of us and two firemen, big, strong guys — and I’m not the smallest guy in the world. They grabbed me under the arms, said got to get out of here, and they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do, I’m big.
They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said fellas, I can run myself. But they were amazing, but they thought it was coming down; it didn’t come down, US steel.
Trump made several claims in this part of the speech: first, he said he “took the whole crew down” to Ground Zero to help after the attack. Second, he claimed that the “United States Steel Building was creaking” and in danger of collapsing on him. Third, he claimed he was saved by two firefighters.
We investigated Trump’s claim that he went to Ground Zero with a group of workers immediately after the 9/11 attacks in a
We have no evidence to support Trump’s claim that he was rescued by two firefighters at One Liberty Plaza, though television interviews place him in the vicinity in the aftermath of 9/11. As such, we leave this claim unrated until more information becomes available.
We reached out to the White House to ask about Trump’s location after the attack, the identity of the firefighters and more. The White House did not answer our questions and sent us the following statement from spokesperson Davis Ingle over email:
President Trump spent the morning yesterday paying tribute to the heroic first responders who laid down their lives in service to others in the September 11th attacks and honoring their incredible families. The President was relaying his experience of a city reeling immediately after and in the days and weeks after the horrific attacks – and the fact that the failing legacy media is using this to try to attack him is a disgrace and yet another reason why Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low.
Below, we address the claims Trump made about being at One Liberty Plaza and his alleged rescue by firefighters.
Was Trump at One Liberty Plaza?
There is video evidence that Trump was near Ground Zero in the days after the attack, but we found no proof that he was actually inside the nearby One Liberty Plaza. Trump’s remarks are not clear about where he was standing when the building was supposedly creaking.
The White House did not respond to our request for photo or video evidence of Trump’s proximity to One Liberty Plaza specifically.
Trump’s claim that the building was in danger of collapse was incorrect. Right after the attack, many reportedly expressed concerns that the building would collapse, but officials at the Department of Buildings debunked the claims. According to an October 2001 New York Times report, the building remained structurally sound even on Sept. 12:
”There are no structural concerns with this building,” said Ilyse Fink, the director of communications for the city’s Department of Buildings, reinforcing a message she has delivered almost daily since Sept. 12. ”It is not and was not in danger of collapse. The building is structurally sound.”
Did firefighters save Trump from a potential building collapse?
Given that we do not know exactly where Trump was around One Liberty Plaza, and that we know the building was never in danger of collapse, it is not clear which building and which firefighters Trump was referring to in his Sept. 8 speech.
The White House also did not respond to our question about the identity of the firefighters. Without any firefighters corroborating Trump’s account, this claim remains unproven.
In sum, while we know Trump was in the vicinity of Ground Zero in the days after the attack, we do not have evidence that he was in One Liberty Plaza, nor that he was rescued by firefighters. We also know that the building was not in danger of collapse. Trump did not mention other buildings in his remarks.
Snopes has fact-checked many of Trump’s claims in the aftermath of 9/11.
