Donald Trump welcomed 9/11 first responders to the White House to unveil a nearly 17,000-pound, 21-foot steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center's South Tower, as part of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation's "Steel Across America" tour ahead of the attacks' 25th anniversary. The event, held on the Ellipse and decorated with photographs of fallen first responders, honoured the 343 firefighters killed on 11 September 2001 and the roughly 3,000 Americans who died overall, many of whose colleagues still suffer long-term illnesses linked to toxic exposure at Ground Zero.

Trump is reportedly set to speak at the Pentagon's memorial rather than the New York ceremony he has attended in past years, after the National September 11 Memorial and Museum's ban on political speakers since 2012 reportedly ruled out his participation there. Vice President JD Vance will attend the New York event instead, alongside former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, while other officials are expected in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, site of the United 93 crash. Tunnel to Towers CEO Frank Siller, whose firefighter brother Stephen died in the attacks, spoke alongside Trump, noting personal connections to those pictured at the event.