Donald Trump boasted incorrectly that one of his buildings was now the tallest in downtown Manhattan after the World Trade Center in New York City collapsed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
“40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest,” the then-businessman said in a telephone interview on the afternoon of Sept. 11 with local New Jersey television station WWOR.
“And then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it’s the tallest,” added Trump, who has a history of making tasteless and false comments about 9/11, including baseless claims that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the attacks.
Just hours earlier, terrorists had hijacked two commercial airplanes and then flown them into the Twin Towers, killing nearly 3,000 people.
Check out the interview here:
Trump’s boast was as incorrect as it was insensitive.
As HuffPost revealed in 2016 following a review of architectural reports, 70 Pine Street actually became the area’s tallest edifice in the area, at 952 feet tall.
Meanwhile, 40 Wall Street (aka the Trump Building) is a reported 927 feet tall.
In the interview, Trump also revealed how he would have responded to the atrocity were he president.
“Well, I’d be taking a very, very tough line,” he said. “I mean, you know, most people feel they know at least approximately the group of people that did this and where they are. But boy, would you have to take a hard line on this. This just can’t be tolerated.”