President 
Donald Trump marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks at the Pentagon on Friday, vowing the US would "never, ever forget" and linking the attacks to the war with Iran. Trump and first lady Melania Trump listened as the names of the 184 people killed when American Airlines Flight 77 hit the building were read aloud, a bell tolling between each.
What did the president say? "We will never, ever forget," Trump said. "That's why we fight today. We don't have a choice." After saluting "every member of the United States military who served in the war on terror," he turned to Iran, praising service members "working right now to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon." He also recounted the stories of victims aboard the plane and inside the Pentagon, the BBC reported.
What did the defense secretary say? "Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world's most prolific state sponsor of terrorism," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. "Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century, that cheered on 9/11," he said, PBS NewsHour reported. The US-Israeli war, which the Korea Times reported is now in its seventh month, has slid into a stalemate, with Iran largely maintaining its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
How did the day differ from past anniversaries? It was the second year in a row that Trump, a New York native, spent the day at the Pentagon, and he last attended the ground zero ceremony in 2024, PBS NewsHour reported. Presidents have previously marked major anniversaries at several sites, the Korea Times reported, including New York, where most of the 2,977 victims were killed.
What did he say about domestic politics? The "ultimate victory over the perpetrators will not be found on a foreign battlefield," Trump said. Telling the story of a firefighter killed in the attacks whose son became a Navy veteran, he said it showed "we can be a nation whose heroes are not fanatics for an abstract cause," which the Korea Times reported was an apparent swipe at Democrats. He had used the same term in a speech to a Republican midterm convention on Wednesday, telling voters that with their vote they "can tell these far-left lunatics and fanatics that America is not for sale."
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
