Disturbing moment Donald Trump bragged he had 'biggest building in New York' hours after 9/11
Unsavoury remarks made by Donald Trump in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the Twin Towers have resurfaced.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the tragedy that took the lives of almost 3,000 and changed the New York skyline forever - as the US President pointed out in the moments after the planes struck.
He claimed to have witnessed the 'huge explosion' that ensued after the World Trade Center was hit and seemed to celebrate that the destruction of the towers, as this meant that his building had become the tallest by default.
Before hijackers flew planes into the sprawling structures on 11 September, 2001, the North Tower stood at a height of 1,368ft (417m), while the South Tower was 1,362ft (415m) tall.
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Trump was sat inside 40 Wall Street - a 71-storey building situated several blocks away - during the terrorist attack and said he watched the entire thing unfold from 'a window that looks directly at the World Trade Center'.
After witnessing the horror, he conducted an interview with the US news station WWOR-TV and shared his experience of the day that went down in history.
"I have a window that looks directly at the World Trade Center and I saw this huge explosion," Trump said. "I was with a group of people and I really couldn't believe it - and even worse than that, for years, I've looked right directly at the building. I see the Empire State Building in the foreground and the World Trade Center the background, and now I'm looking at absolutely nothing. It's just gone. And it's just hard to believe."
Conversation then turned to how he intended to protect 40 Wall Street, the building in the heart of the financial district that he took over in 1995.
The future commander-in-chief explained that he already had 'very, very strong security' measures in place and added: "But there's very little you can do about planes crashing into a building."
Trump then began to discuss how his 'very good friend' Larry Silverstein was in the process of moving into the World Trade Center, as the businessman had bought it just a few days prior.
"I was very worried about him," he went on, noting that Silverstein was ultimately safe. "I assumed maybe he was in the building, he took possession of the building one week ago.
"He was in his office that he was getting ready to move into the World Trade Center over the next two weeks. I just spoke to him."
Trump was subsequently asked whether 40 Wall Street had sustained any damage amid the terror attack.
He responded: "Well it was an amazing phone call I made, 40 Wall Street actually was the second tallest building in downtown Manhattan and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest.
"And then when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second tallest. And now it's the tallest."
While thousands of New Yorkers were dead, injured and searching for loved ones at this very moment, Trump was apparently more interested in boasting about the size of his building.
WWOR-TV reporter Alan Marcus later suggested that this was an example of 'Donald being Donald'.
"He is the brand manager of Trump, and he is going to tout that brand, and he does it reflexively," he told Politico in 2016. "Even on that day."
During the phone interview, Trump went on to discuss how future generations would have no idea what the New York skyline looked like before 9/11, which he found 'so hard to believe'.
Ironically, he was then asked what he would do if he was the US president.
'We have to take a hard line on this'
"Well, I'd be taking a very, very tough line," Trump 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, we do have to take a hard line on this. This just can't be tolerated and it's got to be very, very strange."
Although he did express his sympathies for the victims of the terror attack and Americans impacted by the events, a lot of people think that Trump's remarks were very insensitive and ill-timed.
The audio of his WWOR-TV interview has been circulating on social media in recent days ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and people have had a lot to say about it.
One person wrote: "Lowest of the low. At that terrible moment in time he still had to make it about himself."
A second said: "I remember hearing this on the news and thinking, 'What a stupid thing to say right now'."
A third simply added: "Wow. Thats depressing."
While a fourth chimed in: "I remember this statement very well. I was sick and didn't go to work that day, so as soon as news coverage began, I was watching. I heard his interview and thought that something was not right with his way of thinking. Didn't he just experience what everyone else in NYC had?"
Trump is 'paying tribute to the American heroes we lost and their beautiful family members' by inviting first responders and officials to the White House on Tuesday (8 September).
He is set to speak at a ceremony that is being held at the Pentagon on Friday (11 September).
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, New York
Olivia Burke