Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump bragged that his building was the tallest in New York City hours after the World Trade Center towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001.
Audio of the real estate mogul’s comments was obtained and published by Politico reporter Michael Kruse on Saturday. In the middle of a 10-minute conversation with local television station WWOR, Trump took the opportunity to plug his 71-story skyscraper located in the financial district, just blocks away from the doomed towers.
“40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest — and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it’s the tallest,” he says in the clip, as footage of the towers falling rolls on screen.
Trump has a habit of stirring up controversy regarding the Sept. 11 attacks. The New York billionaire has previously called the newly built 1 World Trade Center “disgusting” and “a piece of junk.” Last year, he claimed, without offering evidence, that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks. And he has a very long history of trying to make Sept. 11 all about himself.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
