Vice President JD Vance said Thursday he knew of no “special security concern” that would lead President Trump to skip next week’s 25th anniversary commemoration of the 9/11 attacks at Ground Zero — before joking he was looking forward to “intellectual conversations” with former President Joe Biden.
Trump will attend a remembrance event at the Pentagon rather than in his birth city — a decision that has drawn intrigue and speculation amid Iranian assassination threats.
“I don’t think it’s a special security concern,” Vance told The Post during a White House press briefing, before qualifying: “Though actually, I will — we’ll follow up with Secret Service just to get you an actual answer on that. But that’s not what I’ve heard.”
“I mean, you know, you have a vice president, you have a president [and] we’d like to be in three or four places on 9/11, but you can’t have one person be in multiple locations at the exact same time,” the VP added. “And so we just decided as a team that I would go to New York.”
In July, Trump secretly ditched Air Force One while leaving the annual NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey — flying to the UK on a military plane after US intelligence received word of a credible threat to shoot down the presidential jet.
All other living former presidents — including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Biden — will attend the ceremony in Lower Manhattan.
“I’m really looking forward to hanging out with Joe Biden,” Vance joked. “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.”
Trump did not attend the ceremony at Ground Zero last year either. He was at the Pentagon but did travel to New York City later in the day to attend a Yankees game honoring the victims of the attack.
The president, when asked last week why he wouldn’t be going to his hometown, simply said: “Because I’m going to the Pentagon.”
The New York Times reported that Trump would be at the Pentagon instead of the site of the World Trade Center Towers because organizers in New York would not allow him to speak during the Ground Zero program, which traditionally does not allow speeches.
The White House has denied that claim. Communications director Steven Cheung called the report “FAKE NEWS” in a post on X.
Trump last attended the ceremony at Ground Zero in 2024, when he was there with Vance, Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
He’ll also mark the occasion at the White House, hosting 9/11 first responders and officials on Sept. 8, where a 21-foot steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower will be displayed through the anniversary.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation will bring its “Steel Across America” tour to the White House, where the 16,900-pound steel beam will be displayed on the Ellipse.
Other administration officials — who have yet to be announced — will attend a ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11th.
