“On that day not only did the world change, but we all changed,” Mr. Trump said. “Our eyes were opened to the depths of the evil we faced, but in that hour of darkness we also came together with renewed purpose. Our differences never looked so small, our common bonds never felt so strong.”
Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mr. Trump said the country was committed to “destroying the enemies of all civilized people.
He added: “We are making plain to these savage killers that there is no dark corner beyond our reach, no sanctuary beyond our grasp, and nowhere to hide anywhere on this very large earth.”
The moment of silence was also observed at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pa., where one of four planes hijacked by Islamic militants crashed out of a nearly cloudless early-autumn sky.
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It came on a day when emergency medical workers were engaged in rescue and recovery efforts in Florida and the Gulf Coast in Texas to deal with aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, two huge storms that have stretched the resources of federal emergency management officials also responsible for protecting the nation from terrorist attacks.
Mr. Trump offered prayers to those affected by the storms.
“These are storms of catastrophic severity, and we’re marshaling the full resources of the federal government to help our fellow Americans in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and all of those wonderful places and states in harm’s way,” Mr. Trump told the crowd gathered in front of the section of the Pentagon, now rebuilt, that was destroyed by the hijackers in 2001. “When Americans are in need, Americans pull together — and we are one country. And when we face hardship, we emerge closer, stronger and more determined than ever. We’re gathered here today to remember a morning that started very much like this one.”
Vice President Mike Pence represented the administration at an observance at the Sept. 11 memorial in Shanksville.
The president, who was running his family’s real estate empire in 2001, at first praised President George W. Bush’s response to the attacks, initially supporting the invasion of Iraq before turning sharply against the war and Mr. Bush.
He has often criticized other politicians for failing to grasp the threat posed to the homeland by jihadists but has often repeated the false, unsubstantiated claim that Muslims in New Jersey danced in celebration as the towers tumbled.
Correction: September 11, 2017
An earlier version of this article misstated the number of planes hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001. There were four, not three.
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