US marks 25th anniversary of 9/11 attacks with ceremonies in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania

The United States has marked the 25th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks with commemorations at the Pentagon, the World Trade Center site in New York and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The ceremonies brought together current and former national leaders, families of victims and other attendees to remember the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes struck the three sites. Moments of silence were held at the times of the attacks, and the names of the dead were read aloud.

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President Donald Trump attended the Pentagon ceremony, while Vice-President JD Vance was present at the memorial in New York. All four living former US presidents and first ladies were also at the World Trade Center site, including George W Bush, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. At the Pentagon, Trump said the country was renewing a "sacred oath" made in the names of the victims a quarter of a century ago, and said: "We will never, ever forget." He also linked the legacy of the post-9/11 war on terror to current tensions with Iran.

The commemorations reflected the scale and continuing significance of the attacks, which reshaped US domestic security policy and foreign policy for years. The Pentagon ceremony included cabinet secretaries and Condoleezza Rice, who was US secretary of state on 11 September 2001. In New York, the reading of the names remained central to the memorial, underscoring the personal loss felt by families and survivors.

In Pennsylvania, remembrance focused on Flight 93, whose passengers fought back against the hijackers before the plane crashed in a field near Shanksville. The anniversary also highlighted how 9/11 remains a defining event in modern US political life. The attacks led to the long-running war on terror and years of US military involvement in the Middle East, themes that continue to shape debate over national security and foreign policy.

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The presence of presidents past and present at the ceremonies showed the extent to which the day is treated as a national moment of remembrance rather than a partisan occasion. It also underlined the continuing role of memorial sites as places of public mourning and historical memory. The New York ceremony drew particular attention because it brought together the living former presidents alongside the current administration.

Among those remembered were people whose families and workplaces were directly affected, including US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who lost his brother Gary and several colleagues in the attack. The events at the three sites followed a familiar pattern of silence, reading of names and formal tributes, but the 25th anniversary gave them added symbolic weight. It also came at a time when the attacks remain a reference point in discussions of terrorism, resilience and national identity.

What remains unchanged is the central question of how the country chooses to remember the attacks as the generation with direct memory of them grows older. The ceremonies did not announce new policy measures, but they reinforced the continuing political and emotional importance of the anniversary. Further public reflection is expected to continue at memorial sites and in local communities across the country.

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