President honors 9/11 victims at White House ceremony

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will preside over his first 9/11 commemoration in office today, a mostly solemn and nonpartisan occasion.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump planned to observe a moment of silence at the White House in remembrance of the nearly 3,000 people who were killed when hijackers flew commercial airplanes into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the White House said.

The morning remembrance was scheduled for about the time the first plane struck one of the Twin Towers on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Trump and his wife were also to pay their respects at a Pentagon ceremony led by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The observances come as Trump grapples with the death and destruction caused by two hurricanes in three weeks.

Vice President Mike Pence was to represent the administration at an observance at the 9/11 memorial in Shanksville.

A native New Yorker, Trump frequently uses the terrorist strikes to praise the city’s response. He often lauds the bravery of New York police officers, firefighters and other emergency responders who rushed to the Twin Towers, in some cases knowing they probably wouldn’t make it out alive, as an example of the resilience of the city where he made a name for himself.