This Is the President on 9/11

On September 11, 2001, during the hours following the terror attacks that killed almost 3,000 innocent people in New York, DC, and Pennsylvania, then-real estate tycoon Donald Trump called into a local news station, bragging about how the fall of the Twin Towers meant his building was now the tallest in lower Manhattan. Now, 17 years later, Trump’s position in life has changed drastically. His ability to respectfully address the biggest American tragedy of his lifetime, though, has not.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump, current leader of the free world, arrived in Pennsylvania for a memorial service honoring the lives lost on United 93, and somehow thought, yes, this was the perfect time to pump his fists like the world’s shittiest Rocky.

.@realDonaldTrump First Lady Melania Trump greet supporters as they arrive in Johnstown, PA to attend the Flight 93 September 11 Memorial Service in Shanksville, PA pic.twitter.com/SRMBvlDLKJ

— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) September 11, 2018

The celebratory move—both fists raised, his bottom lip clenched tightly between his teeth—isn’t exactly very fitting for such a sad and somber day, but it doesn’t really seem like the September 11 attacks were on Trump’s mind when he rolled out of bed to begin with. The president began his morning tweeting about collusion, before quickly retweeting a post about 9/11 and slapping on a few hashtags, then launching into a rambling, congratulatory message about Rudy Giuliani.

And then, finally, like some kind of strange afterthought to make sure the world knew what day it was, he tweeted a simple statement of mathematic fact, punctuated by a particularly out-of-place exclamation point.

17 years since September 11th!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2018

This is the President of the United States—a guy who once said he watched “thousands” of Muslims cheering in Jersey City as the towers fell. A guy who claimed he lost “hundreds of friends” in the attack but never named one. A guy who used the day in 2013 to tweet about all the “haters and losers” out there.

“@realDonaldTrump: I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.”

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2013

A guy who fist-pumps and thumbs-up his way through 9/11 memorials.

[Jock Jams plays in background] pic.twitter.com/hNLu347Ydm

— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) September 11, 2018

At this point, should we even be shocked?

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