President Trump explicitly linked the 9/11 attacks to the ongoing war with Iran Friday as he marked the 25th anniversary of the worst terror atrocity on US soil.
“Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago: We will never, ever forget. That’s why we fight today,” Trump said at the American military’s headquarters, where 184 people died when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the building.
Follow live updates as America honors the 25th anniversary of 9/11, in NYC and across the nation
“We don’t have a choice. It can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win.”
Trump launched the Iran war Feb. 28, intending to force a deal that prevents Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. Both he and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth described the fight as part of a broader confrontation with terrorists.
“For 25 years, our best and bravest have kept America safe, and today we salute every member of the United States military who served in the war on terror. It is a war on sick, horrible terror,” the president said.
“We salute our first responders and law enforcement, and we love them, and we salute the 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.”
“On days like 9/11,” Trump added, “we learn what a country is truly made of. We’re learning right now what we’re made of, and we have to be strong and we have to be smart.”
More coverage on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11:
In then-President George W. Bush’s first State of the Union address, given nearly five months after the attacks in January 2002, he name-checked Iran as one-third of an “axis of evil” that included Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Kim Jong Il’s North Korea — all of which purportedly possessed weapons of mass destruction.
The remark led to widespread speculation that the Republican administration would pursue war with Iran, which did not come to pass until Trump launched Operation Epic Fury earlier this year.
“Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism. Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century, that cheered on 9/11,” Hegseth said.
Iran, the secretary added, is ruled by “a regime that has sponsored terrorist attacks against Americans for decades, killing thousands, including our comrades in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“We’re still sending terrorists where they belong — to hell — and tankers to the bottom of the ocean, where they belong, and we are ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth added.
“The economic pressure tightens every day. We control the Strait [of Hormuz]. We will finish this fight.”
