New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, attended the event, though he faced Islamophobic attacks and calls to skip the ceremony from conservative politicians. Standing steps away from him was former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who helped unify New Yorkers after the attacks before becoming embroiled in controversy years later. Giuliani previously said Mamdani’s presence would offend him.

The rhetoric was a sharp contrast with the efforts to unite the nation in 9/11’s aftermath. Amid rising Islamophobia in the days after the attacks, then-President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center of Washington and declared “Islam is peace.”

Some mourners who spoke at the 25th anniversary event in New York condemned Saudi Arabia for allegedly supporting the hijackers. The Saudi government has consistently denied any involvement or foreknowledge of the attacks, saying in court that it remains a U.S. ally and is a sworn enemy of al-Qaida. The legal battle continues to this day, just blocks from Ground Zero.

"For 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families," said Terry Strada, an official with 9/11 Families United and the widow of Tom Strada, who was killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Drawing applause, she thanked Vice President JD Vance for attending the ceremony, adding: “Please carry that message back – stand with the families, stand with the survivors, stand with Americans. As my husband Tom would have said, ‘That is always the right thing to do.’”

Barbara Pemberton, 74, of Williamsburg, Virginia, emphasized unity. She attended the ceremony in New York to show appreciation for responders and to honor her sister, Sue Sauer, who was in the World Trade Center for a work meeting on 9/11. On her right wrist, Pemberton wore a bracelet inscribed with Sauer’s name.

Pemberton, a retired educator, said she hoped younger Americans would spend time learning about 9/11 and how the country united in its aftermath.

“I wish we could go back to the day after 9/11 and see how patriotic people were then,” she said. “We are so divided now and it breaks my heart.”

'Great American courage'

As the sun rose, the U.S. 911th Technical Rescue Engineer Co. unfurled an enormous U.S. flag down the west side of the Pentagon, where 184 were killed after American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building. The tradition occurs every 9/11 anniversary, commemorating the first responders who hung a flag on the building 25 years ago.

The United States Marine Band performed “God Bless America.” Military officers read victims’ names as screens flanking them displayed their photos. The only other sound came from planes flying overhead.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recalled how Pentagon staffers battled the smoke and fire and helped rescue others.

“Today is not just a story of loss; it is also a story of great American courage, selfless service – and those who’ve made the choice to carry those memories forward,” Caine said. “In the moment of greatest danger, Americans moved toward one another.”

Visitors were able to explore a corridor of the Pentagon near where the plane hit. The walls feature pictures of the disaster and cleanup along with children’s artwork commemorating victims.

Outside, President Donald Trump praised Americans for their resolve in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. They responded, he said, to “wickedness. On days like 9/11, we learned what a country is truly made of.”

“Americans are made of a goodness and a spirit that can transcend any earthly force,” Trump said, “and that’s what we’re doing better than anyone else has ever been able to do it, because we are sustained by a supreme strength far more powerful than steel alone.”

Trump’s focus veered to America’s continuing war with Iran as he praised U.S. service members who are “working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror – the Islamic Republic of Iran – will never ever have a nuclear weapon.”

Hallowed ground in Boston

Teresa Mathai stood on the steps of the Massachusetts Statehouse, reading “We Remember Them,” a poem by Rabbi Sylvan Kamens and Rabbi Jack Riemer. Her husband, Joseph Mathai, died in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Their children, she said, are now married with children of their own.

“At the rising sun and at its going down, we remember them,” Mathai, of Arlington, Massachusetts, recited to the crowd of mourners.

The crowd echoed her: “We remember them.”

After Mathai finished the poem, Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu read the names of the 219 Massachusetts residents who were killed in the attacks.

“On this day, 25 years ago, our world was shattered in a single morning. We lost parents, grandparents, spouses, partners, siblings, children, friends,” Mathai said. “In those raw, painful autumn days of 2001, none of us knew how we would survive the weight of such sudden, devastating loss. Yet out of that unprecedented darkness, something profound emerged: unity.”

Mourners also gathered at Boston Logan International Airport, where American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 departed before they were hijacked on 9/11. A memorial at the airport bears the names of the those who were on those planes. Archbishop of Boston Richard Henning prayed for them.

“We have in the Catholic tradition a ritual for blessing churches and cemeteries – hallowing the ground. But it strikes me that there's more than one way to make ground holy, and I feel so honored to be with you today,” Henning said. “And I feel very truly that we are standing right now on hallowed ground, holy ground.”

Davanna Feyrer was 3 on 9/11. She recalled watching Elmo on TV that day when "all of a sudden I saw a plane crash into a tower. I didn't understand." Now 28, she observed the 25th anniversary with her mother and father at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania. The memorial honors the 40 people who died when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field here.

Feyrer’s family is from Butler, about two hours away. She has watched as the memorial has grown over the years.

"Something different happens to me every year. My favorite is the Tower of Voices,” she said, referring to a 93-foot monument featuring 40 windchimes. “A couple of years ago I took a really neat picture of it and made it my Facebook profile photo."

Her mother, Minnetta Bowman, said their family visits yearly because “it was just everyday people who stepped up to the plate and showed their support for each other and for our country.”

Deborah Grantham drove from Tennessee so she could attend the ceremony. Flight 93’s passengers, she said, "knew their plane was going to do something horrendous, and they decided to fight back. It just spoke to me."

Like others, she hopes the 25th anniversary will help reunite Americans.

“We all came together,” she said, “and I hope we come together again. I hope there's more reaching across the aisle – more being Americans, rather than thinking of individual wants and needs.”

Bailey Allen, Christopher Cann, Bart Jansen and Erin Mansfield contributed to this report.