#trump-tower — Trump Fail

At a White House Event Honoring 9/11 First Responders, Trump — Who Was Miles Away in Trump Tower When the Towers Were Hit, and Who Has Announced He Will Skip the Coming Ground Zero Ceremony Because He Can't Give a Speech There — Claimed "Two Big Firemen" Grabbed Him and Carried Him to Safety From a Creaking Building Near Ground Zero, a Dramatic Rescue for Which There Is No Photo, No Record, No Named Firefighter, and No Evidence It Ever Happened

At a September 8, 2026 White House event honoring 9/11 first responders — marking the 25th anniversary — Trump told a dramatic new story casting himself as a near-victim of the attacks. He claimed that "the United States Steel Building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down," and that "two firemen, big strong guys, they grabbed me under the arms — 'got to get out of here!' — and they literally lifted me up, and they started running with me." The building he meant is One Liberty Plaza (formerly the U.S. Steel Building), which did face genuine collapse fears when the towers fell. But the rescue almost certainly did not happen to him. Fact-checkers at CNN, PolitiFact, and PBS found no photo, no video, no emergency record, and no first-responder account supporting it; Trump named neither of the two firefighters; and CNN's Daniel Dale noted the decisive problem — Trump was not near the World Trade Center when it was struck. He was in Trump Tower, miles uptown. There is no public evidence he was even in the building he described in the days afterward, and people who were on site say they never saw him. The story is stolen valor at a memorial: a man inserting himself, as a rescued near-hero, into the middle of the nation's worst terrorist attack — told to the faces of the real responders it honored — even as he plans to skip the coming Ground Zero ceremony on September 11 because its rules will not let him give a speech.

Trump Personally Called FIFA's President to Get a U.S. Player's Red Card Reversed at the World Cup — FIFA Complied, Belgium Is "Astonished," and the Same FIFA President Gave Trump a Peace Prize, Rents Office Space in Trump Tower, Gave Him $15,000 in Tickets, and Will Let Him Present the Trophy at the Final

President Trump personally called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to ask him to review U.S. striker Folarin Balogun's red card suspension during the 2026 World Cup, the New York Times reported. FIFA then reversed the automatic one-game ban, citing Article 27 of its disciplinary code, making Balogun available for the Round of 16 match against Belgium. The Belgian Football Association said it was "astonished" and is "investigating all potential options." Trump posted: "Thank you to FIFA for doing what was right, and reversing a great injustice!" USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino, asked if politicians should lobby FIFA over specific decisions: "No, we cannot mix that. We cannot mix that." Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville: "It absolutely stinks, let's be really clear." The call is the latest expression of an extraordinary relationship between Trump and Infantino. FIFA awarded Trump its inaugural "Peace Prize" in December 2025 — a prize no senior FIFA official had heard of before Infantino announced it. FIFA rents office space in Trump Tower at an estimated $40,000 per month — space that reportedly sits largely idle. Infantino gave Trump $15,000 in tickets to the FIFA Club World Cup final. Trump's financial disclosure lists nearly $120,000 in sports tickets from various sources. Infantino announced Trump will help present the World Cup trophy at the July 19 final. Fifty members of the European Parliament sent FIFA a letter urging it to address an ethics complaint over the peace prize, calling it "a clear breach of FIFA's duty of neutrality." The president of the United States called the president of FIFA to get a soccer ruling changed in his country's favor during a tournament his country is hosting, and FIFA — which rents space in his building, gave him a peace prize, and will put him at center stage for the final — said yes.