9/11 anniversary: Trump to mark 25 years at Pentagon

The United States is preparing to mark 25 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks, with President Donald Trump due to pay his respects at the Pentagon while other senior political figures attend the main ceremony at Ground Zero in New York.

Vice President JD Vance and Trump's four living predecessors — Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George Bush — are expected at the lower Manhattan site on September 11. Bush was president at the time of the attacks.

The attacks killed 2,977 people on the day, with the largest number of victims at the World Trade Center. Nineteen Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four planes: two struck the Twin Towers, one hit the Pentagon and another crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back.

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum is focusing on education and outreach as more Americans were either not born in 2001 or are too young to remember the attacks. Beth Hillman, the museum's president and a US Air Force veteran, said 100 million Americans fall into that category.

At Ground Zero, relatives are expected to read the names of those killed, as they do each year. In the evening, two beams of light are due to be projected from lower Manhattan to symbolize the towers.

Beyond those killed on September 11, more than 9,400 people have died from 9/11-related illnesses, according to the federal program set up to provide medical care to those affected.

The trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the attacks, was recently scheduled for June 2028 at the US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has been detained there for 20 years.

The New York Times reported that Trump would not attend the Ground Zero event because speeches are not allowed there, a rule intended to keep the ceremony nonpartisan. Trump dismissed that report as made up.