US President Donald Trump is facing renewed scrutiny over his account of what he did in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks after claiming two firefighters carried him to safety near ground zero.
Mr Trump made the claim on Tuesday at a Washington event marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks, despite there being no evidence to confirm the incident.
Mr Trump said he visited the rubble at the World Trade Centre with a “crew” who were working on a construction project.
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“They had no hesitation. Everybody went down with me. We went down with a big group of people,” Mr Trump said.
The President continued to explain how two firefighters dragged him away from the scene because they believed a nearby building was about to collapse.
“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 arms,” he added, without specifying exactly when the incident occurred.
“They got to get out of here. And they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I’m big.
“They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said, ‘Fellas, I can run myself.’
“But they were amazing. But they thought it was coming down.”
Mr Trump’s version of events appears to differ from earlier accounts of where he was and what he was doing on September 11, 2001.
At the time of the attacks, Mr Trump was reportedly at his residence in Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, which is about a 40-minute drive from the World Trade Centre.
Soon after the attacks, Mr Trump, who was a real estate developer and businessman at the time, spoke on the phone with a New Jersey TV station when he discussed the impact of his properties in lower Manhattan.
Mr Trump focused on 40 Wall Street, which he owned at the time. He said the building had once been the tallest in downtown Manhattan before the World Trade centre was constructed.
“And then, when they built the World Trade Centre, it became known as the second-tallest,” he said at the time.
“And now it’s the tallest.”
