Twenty-five years after the attacks, an invitation-only Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral brought together the city’s uniformed services, victims’ families, and its top political leaders, Democrats and a former president among them. Trump wasn’t there. He was in Dallas, delivering the closing keynote of his party’s midterm convention on the same night.
Former President Joe Biden, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Gov. Kathy Hochul attended a 9/11 memorial Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the evening of September 10, marking the eve of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. President Trump did not attend. That same evening, he was in Dallas delivering the closing keynote address of the Republican Party’s midterm convention.
What Actually Happened at St. Patrick’s
The Mass, celebrated by Archbishop Ronald Hicks for the families of the dead, uniformed services personnel, and the city’s civic leaders, was invitation-only and closed to the press, though the Archdiocese of New York carried it on a livestream. Biden’s arrival was unannounced and drew what one attendee described as loud applause, a sound rarely heard inside the cathedral. He took his place beside Hochul and Mamdani, the three trading words before the procession and again at the sign of peace. Biden reportedly stayed for nearly an hour afterward, speaking individually with surviving family members and first responders.
Notably, the archbishop’s invitation to Mamdani stood despite a monthlong public campaign by Bill Donohue of the Catholic League demanding the mayor stay home. That protest changed nothing. Mamdani walked through the cathedral’s bronze doors regardless.
Where Trump Was Instead
Trump’s convention ran September 9-10 in Dallas, and by design, his closing keynote address fell on the night of September 10, the same evening as the Mass at St. Patrick’s. Trump used that speech to frame the upcoming midterms as a choice between his economic agenda and a return to Democratic policies, addressing thousands of supporters gathered at the American Airlines Center.
The scheduling wasn’t incidental to the anniversary either. Reporting from late August had already confirmed Trump planned to skip New York’s actual Ground Zero ceremony on September 11 itself, opting instead to mark the day at the Pentagon. Sources told CNN Trump specifically wanted to deliver a speech, and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum has barred politicians from speaking at the Ground Zero site since 2012 to keep the ceremony nonpartisan. Rather than attend and stand silently while families read the names of the dead, Trump chose the Pentagon for September 11, and his own convention stage for the night before.
Vice President JD Vance is attending the Ground Zero ceremony on September 11 in Trump’s place, alongside four former presidents.
This marks a break from Trump’s own past practice. He attended the New York ceremony as a candidate in 2016 and again in 2024. But on this milestone 25th anniversary specifically, the eve of the anniversary found him not at a memorial service but at a campaign event, timed by his own party to close the night before the country’s most solemn annual observance.
The Contrast Landed Publicly
France 24 described the day’s New York commemorations as “marked by US President Donald Trump’s absence,” while noting the ceremony also drew “right-wing outrage” over the attendance of Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor. That framing puts Trump’s choices across these two days in sharp relief: the night before the anniversary, New York’s Catholic community held a solemn Mass drawing Democratic leadership and a former president together in shared remembrance, while Trump closed out a partisan campaign convention in Texas.
The Bottom Line
On the eve of the 25th anniversary of September 11, an invitation-only memorial Mass in Manhattan brought together the city’s Democratic leadership and a former Democratic president in a shared moment of remembrance. Trump spent that same evening delivering a campaign keynote in Dallas, before heading to the Pentagon the following day rather than to the city where nearly 3,000 of the day’s victims actually died.