'We'll never forget', says Trump, 25 years on from 9/11 attacks, and 'that's why we fight today'

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Speaking at a remembrance ceremony at the Pentagon, the President paid tribute to the 184 people who died there when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building on 11 September 2001.

He said the attacks had shown Americans both “the terrible power of hate” and “the power of the American spirit”.

Trump also used his address in Arlington County, Virginia, to draw a link between the legacy of 9/11 and the current conflict with Iran.

“Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago,” he said. “We will never, ever forget. That’s why we fight today."

Trump praised US service members, who he said were working to ensure Iran would “never, ever have a nuclear weapon”.

Read more: We'll never forget, says Trump 25 years on from 9/11 attacks and 'that's why we fight today'

Read more: What happened on United 93 flight on 9/11?

Moments of silence were observed at the times each hijacked plane struck, including when the Twin Towers collapsed and when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers bravely fought back against the hijackers.

Speaking at the Pentagon, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also connected the anniversary with ongoing military action, saying the threat from Islamist extremism remained.

"Today we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago," he said. "We will never, ever forget. That's why we fight today."

Reflecting on the attacks, Trump said: "On days like 9/11, we learn what a country is truly made of".

He added: "We're learning right now what we're made of, and we have to be strong, and we have to be smart."

The comments come as 9/11 memorial events take place across the US, including at Ground Zero in New York City, where families of victims gathered, many carrying pictures of their loved ones.

The ceremony began, as always, at 8:46 a.m. with a moment of silence to remember the shocking instant when Flight 11 the North Tower.

Shortly after, victims' family members began reading aloud the names of all 2,977 people who died. In a reminder of the time that has passed, some readers were children who had never met the relatives they lost in 2001.

Former presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden all attended today’s 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York.

Vice President JD Vance was among those attending the service in Manhattan.

LBC has spoken to survivors of that fateful day 25 years ago. One of those survivors was Mikaila Cruz, who took the last elevator in the second tower before the second plane hit the building.

She told LBC's Shelagh Fogarty that she remembers not knowing if she was "alive or dead"

“I heard a roar of an airplane, something I never heard…. And then I heard a screech. The engine came louder and louder, and then I heard this vibration, almost like a bomb. Then the windows smashed”

She describes being in a “state of shock” and immediately grabbed her briefcase and ran for the stairs because, she says: “In an emergency, that’s what we do. We don’t go into the elevator because it can be a death trap.”

“Lori, who was a coworker of mine, grabbed my arm and pulled me into the elevator, and I said: ‘No, we have to go to the stairs, and she said, ' No, you’re coming with me into the elevator.”

She went on: “We descended to the 90th floor … and one person ran into the elevator. Nobody else got into the elevator.

She describes the chaos that ensued as people started panicking: "The four of us ran into the elevator, and people started pushing us into the elevator. One woman said: ‘No more people.’

"As we descended, I thought I had already died; I did not feel my body. I felt my hand shaking; people around me were crying, and I did not know if I was alive or dead.”

LBC's Shelagh Fogarty also recalled the story of a firefighter who survived 9/11, and "the most distressing sound he had ever heard".

The heroic firefighter had been standing on the rubble at Ground Zero the day of the 9/11 attacks.

The worst sound he heard, she says, “was the beepers the emergency beepers of his colleagues under the rubble, all probably dead.”

“He said it was the most frustrating sound and distressing sound he'd ever heard because he knew the beep.”

She went on: “It was a very specific sound, he said, that meant it was to help you find a colleague if they were trapped in a fire or trapped in some other rescue scenario. And he knew there was no rescue.”

One LBC caller remembered the fire station where "every one" of his friends had died.

Steve, from Islington, once worked as a horse-and-carriage driver in Central Park. When he returned to New York in April 2002 for a friend’s funeral, he went back to the stables where he had worked.

A block away was a fire station where he had known firefighters and drunk with them in a local bar.

“They were all gone. They were all gone, every one of them,” Steve told LBC. “There was a plaque up there for them.”

Steve also remembered his friend Orio Palmer, a New York Fire Department battalion chief who died while trying to rescue people in the South Tower.

“He was very brave, but he was a man we used to drink with and had great craic with,” Steve said. “Everyone’s getting out and they’re going the opposite way, walking up with all that equipment.”