September 9, 2026

Read the original at Letters from an American ↗
Cite

Richardson, H. C. (2026, September 10). September 9, 2026. Letters from an American. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-9-2026

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Letters from an American · collected 2026-09-10 · by Heather Cox Richardson commentary

Quick Summary

President Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims at a White House event honoring the victims of the 9/11 attacks, stating he took a crew downtown immediately after the attack and personally witnessed buildings creaking under pressure. However, there is no evidence to support these claims, according to CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, with Trump's own nephew contradicting his story. The White House attempted to defend Trump by claiming that as a private citizen at the time, not all of his actions were documented. This comes as part of a broader trend of President Trump making unverifiable statements and escalating trade tensions with Canada.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-10, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, New York City's first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, faces controversy over his decision to attend memorial events despite calls from some victims' families and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for him to stay away. Mamdani, who lost an older brother in the attacks, insists on honoring those affected by reading out names at Ground Zero. Meanwhile, nearly 110,000 signatures have been collected through a petition urging Mamdani not to attend, citing concerns over his past associations and appointments that some see as conflicting with the solemnity of the event. Despite this opposition, Mamdani is moving forward with plans to release more than 170,000 pages of documents related to air quality around Ground Zero in the months following 9/11, aiming to provide transparency on what the city knew about toxic conditions and how they handled it.

Written for “9/11 Memorial Controversies” on 2026-10-27, grounded in this article and the 169 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 9/11 Memorial Controversies
Politics · 170 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 5% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Straits Times
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 11% hedged 3 of 27 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles are reporting on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and mention President Donald Trump's attendance at a White House event honoring the victims, as well as his claims about responding to the disaster”
NBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 2% hedged 1 of 47 📰 publisher trust 95
“Both articles report on President Trump's story at a White House event honoring 9/11 victims, where he claims to have been carried to safety by firefighters near the U.S. Steel Building”
CBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 18% hedged 7 of 38 📰 publisher trust 74
“Both articles describe President Trump's unverified statements about being near Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks at a White House event, mentioning the creaking of the United States Steel Building.”
CBS News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 2% hedged 1 of 53 📰 publisher trust 66
“Article A describes President Bush's visit to an elementary school on September 11, 2001, while Article B discusses a White House event honoring 9/11 victims and mentions the president going downtown 'right after this happened', but does not mention visiting an elementary school”
Euronews
⚖️ Leans right 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 20 📰 publisher trust 60
“Article A describes an event where President Trump claims to have gone downtown 'right after' a White House event honoring 9/11 victims, while Article B describes the Republican Party's midterm convention in Dallas paying tribute to the 9/11 victims, without mentioning Trump being present at the specific event described in Article A”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
92
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
5%
5 of 92 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
not measured
these signals count newsroom corrections; Commentary has none to count
Outlets on this story
170
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-10 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Letters from an American · 109 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Heather Cox Richardson
99 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Obama told attendees that El-Sayed is “fighting for change, real change, that will get money out of politics and put money in your pocket” and would “finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act and guarantee quality, affordable healthcare to every single American.”
2026-10-27 · assertive framing · October 26, 2026
🔮 He promised the new tariffs he intended to impose would create an economic miracle.
2026-10-26 · assertive framing · October 25, 2026
🔮 Consumers rushed to buy them, along with ready-made clothing, beauty products, and cars, all of which the new advertising industry, which grew out of the government propaganda campaigns of World War I, promised would bring them glamor, sophistication, romance, and power.
2026-10-25 · assertive framing · October 24, 2026
🔮 He continued: “If Trump wanted to help Ukraine militarily and with starshield he could.
2026-10-23 · assertive framing · October 22, 2026
🔮 Two days before congressionally mandated sanctions on Russia were set to take effect, Trump said he would waive them.
2026-10-23 · assertive framing · Politics Chat, October 20, 2026
🔮 I continue to believe that he is holding photos, videos, whatever it might be.”
2026-10-22 · assertive framing · October 21, 2026
🔮 Haberman and Swan note that forcing the press out of the White House would be “highly symbolic.
2026-10-21 · assertive framing · October 20, 2026
🔮 I am just through the door from several days’ travel and am wiped out, so this will not be a real letter.
2026-10-20 · assertive framing · October 19, 2026
🔮 The reporters explained that a three-way summit with China and the U.S. would cement Russia’s status as one of the world’s three great powers, a status Putin has sought since 2000 when he entered the Kremlin.
2026-10-19 · assertive framing · October 18, 2026
🔮 It was not until close to 6:00 Eastern time that the No Kings account could be used again.
2026-10-18 · assertive framing · October 17, 2026
Also by Heather Cox Richardson
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Representative Maggie Goodlander | American Conversations
2026-10-27 · Letters from an American
October 25, 2026
2026-10-26 · Letters from an American
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 99 articles by Heather Cox Richardson →

Topics

Canada Iran Jordan U.S. White House

Subjects

Trump PERSON · 11× U.S. GPE · 7× Iran GPE · 6× Canada GPE · 3× Iranian NORP · 2× Jordan GPE · 2× White House ORG · 2× CNN ORG · 1× Donald Trump PERSON · 1× U.S. Steel ORG · 1×

Narrative

And while Trump is now trying to justify the attacks by claiming he is working for a nuclear-free Iran, under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated between the U.S., China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Iran during the Obama administration, Iran agreed to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium significantly and allow inspections in exchange for relief from some sanctions.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-10
🔮 Wasn’t too much we could do, I’ll be honest.
2026-09-10 · Letters from an American
September 9, 2026 · assertive framing

Claims (92 extracted, 5 hedged)

Yesterday, at a White House event honoring those who sacrificed their lives on 9/11, President Donald Trump went off script and claimed he had taken a crew downtown “right after this happened. asserted
this → honor → crew
They were, they had no hesitation. asserted
they → have → hesitation
Everybody went down with me. asserted
Everybody → go → me
We went down as a big group of people. asserted
We → go → people
Wasn’t too much we could do, I’ll be honest. uncertain
I → do → ?
Nobody’s seen anything like it ever. asserted
Nobody → see → it
We had other buildings. asserted
We → have → buildings
United States Steel Building was creaking. asserted
Building → creak → ?
And we thought it was going to fall down. asserted
it → think → ?
The truth is it creaked a lot. asserted
it → creak → ?
It creaked. asserted
It → creak → ?
It still creaks, but uh, it never came down. asserted
it → creak → ?
And uh, I’ll never forget two firemen. asserted
I → forget → 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 arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here.’ asserted
they → think → arm
And they literally lifted me up. asserted
they → lift → me
This is not easy to do. asserted
This → do → ?
I’m big. asserted
I → ’m → ?
They lifted me up and they started running with me. asserted
they → lift → me
I said, ‘Fellas, I can run myself.’ asserted
I → say → myself
But they thought it was coming down. asserted
it → think → ?
It didn’t come down, U.S. Steel.” asserted
It → come → ?
In fact, as CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale reported, there is no evidence for any of this story. asserted
Dale → report → story
Trump was at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan when the planes hit the World Trade Center, and there is no evidence for any of his other claims, either. uncertain
planes → hit → claims
Trump’s nephew, Fred Trump, added that Trump did not have a big building under construction at the time and the “only crew he claimed to bring to the site would have been secretarial and accounting employees.” asserted
he → add → site
The younger Trump said he was so offended by President Trump’s claim that he felt the “need to speak out.” uncertain
he → say → need
The White House said, “He was a private citizen at the time, not everything he did was documented,” and White House spokesperson Davis Ingle attacked the media for “using this to try to attack him.” asserted
Ingle → say → him
Trump posted on social media: “Everything I said was exactly accurate.” asserted
I → post → media
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-made goods went into effect yesterday, matching Trump’s tariffs on Canada dollar for dollar and rate for rate, covering about $20 billion in U.S. goods. asserted
tariffs → go → goods
Trump responded by escalating his trade war with Canada even further, banning certain products outright, and establishing new tariffs on Canadian motorcycles, alcohol, and dairy products on September 29. asserted
Trump → respond → September
The U.S. and Iran are striking at each other again. asserted
U.S. → strike → other
The U.S. said it attacked and destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on Tuesday; Iran said it targeted two U.S. ships and eight oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday as they tried to traverse an area Iran has said is off-limits. asserted
Iran → say → area
They also said they had fired at a U.S. military base in Jordan. asserted
they → say → Jordan
The price of oil has surged as fighting resumed, with the cost of Brent crude rising above $100 a barrel. asserted
cost → surge → 100
Tonight, Jennifer Jacobs of CBS News reported that Iran’s strikes on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan caused damage to “[m]ultiple American military aircraft.” asserted
strikes → report → aircraft
Jacobs also posted that U.S. forces launched more than 30 Patriot missiles in their defense against the Iranian strikes. asserted
forces → post → strikes
Today Trump told reporters that the Iranians are prolonging the war because of the U.S. midterm elections and that he expects the war on Iran will end and gas prices will come down as soon as the elections are over. asserted
elections → tell → Iran
“They can’t hold out any longer,” Trump said. asserted
Trump → hold → ?
“They’re desperate to try and affect the election so that we can get a nice, weak group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapons. asserted
them → ’re → weapons
But tonight, Alexander Ward, Shelby Holliday, and Michael R. Gordon of the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s top advisors have warned him that the Iran war could continue for the rest of his term. uncertain
war → report → term
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has already extended the deployment of some of the troops in the Middle East and has planned for additional extensions. asserted
Hegseth → extend → extensions
…and 52 more, not listed.
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