While New York was still under attack and thousands of families were facing unimaginable loss,
Donald Trump used part of a live television interview to discuss the ranking of one of his properties. On September 11, 2001, Trump told WWOR-TV that 40 Wall Street had previously been the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan but was “now the tallest” following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. He did not explicitly celebrate their destruction, and the interviewer had asked whether his building had been damaged. Still,
Trump’s decision to emphasize his property’s supposed new status during such a catastrophic moment struck many people as extraordinarily self-centered. His claim was also factually wrong. The nearby 70 Pine Street building remained taller than 40 Wall Street, meaning Trump’s tower was not even the tallest in Lower Manhattan after the attacks. Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day, and emergency workers were risking their lives amid fires, debris, and collapsing structures. Against that reality, boasting about the height of a commercial property was not merely inaccurate. It revealed a disturbing instinct to turn even a national tragedy back toward himself.
