WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump observed a solemn moment of silence Monday at the White House, his first presidential remembrance of the 9/11 terror attacks.
The president and first lady stood stoically on the White House South Lawn, bowing their heads in honor of the moment that the first plane hit the North tower of New York’s Twin Towers. White House staffers joined them on the lawn.
The two then left the White House to attend a Pentagon ceremony alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
Vice President Mike Pence is observing the solemn day in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the site where United Airlines flight 93 crashed.
The 16th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans comes as the nation weathers another week of devastating hurricanes ripping through the South. As the president held his silence, the rain and wind of Hurricane Irma continued to batter the state of Florida.
Last year, Trump joined in a bipartisan 9/11 remembrance ceremony in New York City that later became a heated political moment in the 2016 presidential race. Former New York senator and then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton appeared to stumble when she left the 15th annual remembrance in downtown Manhattan, a video that later made its way into Trump campaign ads and became fodder for Trump’s attacks against his then-rival.