At Ground Zero, 9/11 families turn to Trump as Obama’s old decision resurfaces
On a cloudy morning at the site where two sprawling towers once stood, the loved ones of New Yorkers killed on 9/11 gathered with a message for President Donald Trump: Release the unredacted files they believe could implicate Saudi Arabia.
Vice President JD Vance attended the ceremony alongside former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, as well as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo were also among those in attendance.
The message was delivered on the main stage by Terry Strada, whose husband, Tom, was killed in the attacks. Speaking from the memorial stage, Strada accused successive administrations of protecting Saudi Arabia instead of supporting the 9/11 families.
Strada called out President Barack Obama, who was at the memorial, for vetoing the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, in 2016. Congress later overrode the veto, allowing 9/11 families to sue Saudi Arabia over its alleged role in the attacks.
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"Administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families," Strada said. "They withheld evidence. They vetoed JASTA. They broke promises, both public and private. It has been one betrayal after another.
"President Trump can still change that"
She urged the president to tell Saudi leaders "that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have all been suffering through."
"Please carry that message back," another speaker said, addressing Vance. "Stand with the families. Stand with the survivors."
The remarks drew applause from the crowd.
"Administration after administration has not done anything for us. In fact, they've blocked, blocked us every step of the way of getting justice," Dennis McGinley, whose older brother Danny worked on the 89th floor of the South Tower, told Fox News Digital.
"President Trump has a unique, historic opportunity here to be a hero, be our champion, finally close the books on this American nightmare, which is now becoming an American embarrassment. It's got to start."
The appeal came as families marked the 25th anniversary of the attacks with a renewed push for accountability from Saudi Arabia, which they accuse of helping two of the hijackers establish themselves in the United States. The kingdom has repeatedly denied involvement.
The families’ claims center on Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who helped hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar obtain an apartment in San Diego, and Fahad al-Thumairy, an accredited Saudi diplomat and imam at the King Fahd Mosque in California who had numerous contacts with al-Bayoumi.
The 9/11 Commission documented the men’s connections but did not conclude that the Saudi government or senior Saudi officials supported the plot. Its report also said investigators found no evidence that another Saudi national, Osama Bassnan, gave money to the hijackers.
Newly released investigative material and evidence presented in a long-running civil case have intensified scrutiny of those connections. In August 2025, U.S. District Judge George Daniels allowed claims against Saudi Arabia to proceed, finding that the families had presented enough evidence to move toward trial. The ruling did not determine that Saudi Arabia was responsible for the attacks.
The families say that legal ruling, along with additional FBI and British intelligence material, gives Trump an opportunity to release more records and help resolve what they view as a 25-year-old betrayal.
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For Passananti, the demand was inseparable from his own loss. His father, Horace Robert Passananti, was working on the 100th floor of the North Tower. Passananti was 32 when he called his father after hearing that a plane had struck the building.
He never heard from him again.
Passananti said he has attended the ceremony every year but one since the attacks.
"I wish I wasn’t here, obviously, but I feel like I have to be here every year," he told Fox News Digital.
Passananti, who is affiliated with the group 9/11 Justice, said families want those responsible for the attacks held accountable.
"We’ve really been on our own — the families — trying to obtain evidence," Passananti said. "We’ve gotten really no help from our government. We feel like they’ve put Saudi Arabia ahead of the 9/11 families, and we’re hoping that will change."
He described the delays in the case as "a twilight zone."
"It feels really like a twilight zone and unbelievable that we have to fight for justice for the worst terrorist attack that ever happened on our soil," Passananti said. "It doesn’t feel real. It’s unexplainable."
Trump has previously acknowledged that questions remain unanswered about the attacks. In 2022, while defending his decision to host a Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament at his New Jersey club amid protests from 9/11 families, Trump said, "Nobody has gotten to the bottom of 9/11."
But Trump has not publicly said whether he supports releasing additional files concerning Saudi Arabia’s alleged ties to the hijackers.
"President Trump is leading the most transparent administration in history, which is why he authorized the declassification and release of hundreds of pages of documents related to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The President will always pay tribute to the American heroes we lost in the tragic September 11 attacks, their beautiful family members, and to the acts of heroism that defined that fateful day when the unbreakable spirit of the American people prevailed," White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
McGinley worked across the Hudson River and called his brother after seeing the first plane hit, believing it was a small aircraft. His brother told him it was a passenger jet and described seeing people jumping from the neighboring tower. McGinley asked Danny if he was evacuating, and he said he'd been told to remain in place just before the South Tower was hit.
McGinley never spoke to him again.
"It is like the wound never healed, and every year we get salt poured back into that wound," McGinley said.
The families’ calls for answers extended beyond those killed on the day of the attacks. Relatives of first responders who later died from cancer and other illnesses linked to toxic exposure also gathered at the memorial to honor their loved ones.
Jen Nilsen, whose husband died in the attacks, said the pain remains as strong as ever 25 years later.
"It doesn’t change at the 25th year," Nilsen said. "The pain is still there."
Nilsen said she returns to the memorial because "this is where he is."
Her message to younger generations was simple.
"Never forget," she said. "Even though years go on, you never forget. You never get over it. The hurt is always there. The pain is always here."