10,000 Families Begged Him to Stay Home, New York’s First Muslim Mayor Showed Up Anyway.
Twenty-five years after nearly 3,000 people died, the solemn rituals at Ground Zero and the Pentagon became arenas for unresolved grievances, culture-war fights, and current foreign policy.
In Lower Manhattan, family members read the names of the dead as Vice President JD Vance and former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden looked on. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended despite a petition from 9/11 families that gathered roughly 110,000 signatures urging organizers to keep him away.
The petition cited Mamdani’s appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s chief legal counsel. Kassem previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaeda operative who pleaded guilty to war-crimes charges; al-Darbi’s sister was married to one of the Pentagon hijackers.
Critics also pointed to Mamdani handing a ceremonial pen used to sign 9/11-related executive orders toward Kassem. Families described the optics as a “slap in the face” on a day of mourning.
Mamdani rejected the calls to stay away, saying the day should focus on families and first responders, not him. He has also released more than 170,000 pages of records he says show city leaders after 2001 downplayed toxic air at Ground Zero.
More than 9,000 people have since died of related illnesses. Some Republicans called the document dump a deflection.
At the Pentagon, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tied the original attacks directly to the current war with Iran. Trump said the United States is “still sending terrorists where they belong—to hell” and that Iran “will never, ever have a nuclear weapon.”
He framed today’s fighting as a continuation of the post-9/11 campaign. Hegseth described both as part of a longer civilizational struggle. Critics called the linkage an attempt to wrap an unpopular, costly war in the sacred memory of 9/11.
During the New York ceremony, relatives of victims also accused successive U.S. administrations of protecting Saudi Arabia rather than pursuing full accountability.
The anniversary that once produced national unity now highlights how little consensus remains on who belongs at the memorial, how the attacks should be remembered, and what “never forget” requires in 2026.
