Keep Factually independent
Whether you agree or disagree with our analysis, these conversations matter for democracy. We don't take money from political groups - even a $5 donation helps us keep it that way.
What was the fact-checking response to Trump's 9/11 celebration allegations?
Executive Summary
Donald Trump’s recurring claim that thousands of Muslims or Arab-Americans in New Jersey cheered as the World Trade Center towers fell on September 11, 2001 is unsupported by contemporary reporting and has been repeatedly debunked by major fact-checkers and local officials. Fact-checking organizations rated the claim among the most severe falsehoods, local Jersey City leaders and residents emphatically denied any mass celebrations, and investigations of original reports found only unverified or mischaracterized accounts, not the widespread cheering Trump described [1] [2] [3] [4]. This analysis extracts the core versions of the allegation, summarizes the fact-check responses across time, highlights how the claim changed in retellings, and contrasts the available evidence and denials to show why independent reviewers concluded the allegation lacks factual basis [5] [6].
1. The Claim That Shocked Audiences: How Trump Told the Story and Shifted the Detail
Donald Trump repeatedly told audiences he had watched thousands of people in Jersey City celebrating as the Twin Towers collapsed; his phrasing and the story’s locus varied over time, sometimes citing supposed TV footage and at other times asserting he personally witnessed large crowds cheering in New Jersey. FactCheck.org and other reviewers documented that Trump’s account evolved and that he misquoted or misapplied contemporaneous reporting to support his version of events, turning unverified mentions into claims of mass celebration [2] [1]. The shifting narrative mattered to reviewers because verification hinges on consistent specifics—date, location, numbers, and source of the footage—and observers found that the particulars Trump offered did not match archived reporting or eyewitness testimony, undermining the credibility of the allegation [2] [3].
2. What National Fact-Checkers Concluded: Ratings, Evidence, and Methodology
Multiple national fact-checkers investigated and concluded the claim was false: PolitiFact rated the allegation “Pants on Fire,” and FactCheck.org gave the claim its harshest consideration, citing no evidence for thousands celebrating in New Jersey and noting that original reports either lacked verification or referred to isolated, unconfirmed incidents. These organizations compared Trump’s statements against contemporaneous news archives, statements from journalists who covered 9/11, and official records; they found no substantiation for the scale of celebration Trump described and flagged misattributed or misread sources as central errors [3] [1]. The fact-checks emphasized the difference between isolated, unverified rumors and the broad, definitive claim of mass celebration, concluding the latter is not supported by credible documentation [2].
3. Local Denials and Eyewitness Context from Jersey City and New Jersey Officials
Officials and community leaders in Jersey City and greater New Jersey uniformly denied the mass-celebration account—Jersey City’s mayor and residents described the day as one of fear, solidarity, and rescue activity, not jubilation, and local inquiries found no archival evidence of large groups celebrating the attacks. Reporting that focused on Jersey City interviewed officials who called Trump’s claim “absolutely not true,” and local accounts documented the city’s role in assisting lower Manhattan and processing panic rather than celebrating, undermining the claim’s geographic assertion [4] [6]. These local denials gained weight because they came from people who were present or responsible for municipal records and emergency response, making their consistent refutation important to the factual record [4] [6].
4. The Overseas Footage Confusion: Where Some Celebrations Were Reported and Why That Matters
Television footage did show celebrations in some Middle Eastern locations in the aftermath of the attacks, and Trump and some supporters later conflated that imagery with U.S. cities—Ben Carson initially echoed a version of the claim before clarifying he referred to overseas footage, not New Jersey. Fact-checkers noted that when celebratory footage from abroad aired on TV in 2001, viewers could see small groups in certain countries reacting to the attacks, but there is a clear distinction between those international clips and any verified celebrations in U.S. cities; conflating them created a false impression that domestic communities were widely celebrating [1] [7]. The misattribution of overseas images to Jersey City or other New Jersey locales is central to why independent reviewers find the claim unfounded [1].
5. Why the Discrepancy Matters Today: Political Uses, Misinformation Risks, and the Record
The allegation persisted because it served political narratives and circulated as a memorable anecdote, but fact-checkers identified a pattern: claims that amplify unverified rumors into sweeping accusations are prone to becoming entrenched despite contrary evidence. Analysts pointed to earlier reporting on isolated, unverified allegations and to later, clearer denials by local officials and archival searches that found no corroborating footage or credible eyewitness accounts consistent with Trump’s portrayal [2] [5]. The record compiled by national fact-checkers and local investigations shows how the original, fragmentary reports and televised images were repurposed into an unfounded claim about mass domestic celebration, and that distinction explains why reviewers consistently labeled the assertion false or severely misleading [3] [5].