Former President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to designate the World Trade Center Ground Zero site as a national monument during a Uniondale, New York, rally.
During the rally, Trump addressed and thanked the Local 94 workers—a group of over 5,000 men and women responsible for HVAC and mechanical systems maintenance in NYC buildings—and announced his intention to designate the Ground Zero site as a monument. He elaborated on the importance of this initiative for all the city’s first responders.
“I think this is a big deal, because in your honor, I am announcing tonight that as president, I will officially make the Ground Zero site at the World Trade Center a national monument protected and maintained by the United States government,” Trump said. “So that hallowed ground and the memory of those who perished there will be preserved for all time, preserved forever. And you deserve it.”
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Trump also lauded the creators of the 9/11 National Memorial Museum for their exemplary work.
“The New Yorkers who created the 9/11 National Memorial Museum really did an amazing job, didn’t they? And many of them are here today and I want to thank them and I want to ensure that their outstanding work is sustained forever,” he continued. “And that’s what we’ve done by doing this.”
It was reported that 2,977 people died in the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the death toll continues to rise from illnesses related to exposure near ground zero, according to the 9/11 Memorial. As of December 2023, 6,781 registered volunteers who helped clean up the wreckage have died from illnesses or cancers linked to exposure at or near Ground Zero post-9/11, more than double the death toll of the attacks themselves, BBC reported.
As of September 2024, the FDNY reported that over 360 firefighters, EMTs and department members had succumbed to World Trade Center-related illnesses, exceeding the 343 fatalities the department suffered on the day of the attacks, according to FDNY.
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