Trump, Hegseth Defend Iran War as Continuation of War on Terror in 9/11 Memorial Speeches

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11 on Friday by paying tribute to the victims and their families — and using the tragic events of the day to offer a rationale for the ongoing war against Iran, which they argued is an extension of the war on terror the U.S. started in the wake of the 2001 attacks.

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“We will never, ever forget,” Trump told attendees of a memorial event at the Pentagon on Friday morning. “That’s why we fight today. We don’t have a choice. There can only be victory. We fight hard, we fight to win.”

The president said his administration is working to “ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror — the Islamic Republic of Iran — will never, ever have a nuclear weapon.”

The U.S. recently entered its seventh month in the war against Iran. Trump initially told Americans the military action would last four to five weeks; now, the conflict, which has cost the U.S. $37.5 billion in military spending alone, has no end in sight. Eighteen American servicemembers have died in the conflict. Trump’s war in Iran has also severely impacted transit through the Strait of Hormuz, which was the route of delivery for 20 million barrels of oil each day before the start of the war.

Trump spent the vast majority of his speech sharing stories about the victims of the 9/11 attack and honoring their lives. “Americans are made of a goodness and spirit that can transcend any earthly force,” he said.

However, he also vowed to “protect this country like never before.”

While most of Hegseth’s speech also focused on honoring the victims of the attack on the Pentagon and the U.S. servicemembers who fought in the conflicts that followed, he briefly tried to put a positive spin on the United States’ military efforts in Iran.

“Over the past six months we have laid waste to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism,” Hegseth said speaking before Trump at the Pentagon event. “Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century, that cheered on 9/11. A regime that has sponsored terrorist attacks against Americans for decades, killing thousands, including our comrades in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Hegseth said the U.S. has “killed their leaders, destroyed their air force and their navy rests at the bottom of the sea.”

“We’re still sending terrorists where they belong: to hell,” he said, adding that the Trump administration is “ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”

“The economic pressure tightens every day. We control the strait. We will finish this fight,” he said.

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The 9/11 Commission found “strong evidence” that Iran facilitated al-Qaeda members’ travel through the country before the attacks. At least eight of the Saudi hijackers traveled into or out of Iran between October 2000 and February 2001 — and Iranian officials allowed them to pass without passport stamps that could cause problems entering the U.S. However, the commission said it did not find any evidence that Iran knew of the planning for the 9/11 attacks. Weeks after the attack, fans gathered at a soccer stadium in Tehran held a moment of silence for the victims.

Trump and Hegseth cast the war in Iran — a country of 93.4 million people — as a continuation of American efforts to destroy stateless terror groups in the wake of 9/11.

Trump previously cited concerns over Iran’s nuclear program and its theocratic regime as his rationale for launching the joint-strike with Israel that started the conflict back in February. The initial strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who served as the country’s supreme leader for nearly 37 years.

But the original post-9/11 military authorization was directed at the nations, organizations and people who “planned, authorized, committed, or aided” 9/11, or harbored those responsible — mainly al-Qaeda terrorists and the Taliban that harbored them.

At a separate 9/11 memorial event in New York City, the widow of 9/11 victim Tom Strada urged the U.S. to turn its attention to Saudi Arabia. The 9/11 Commission found the kingdom, which was home to 15 of the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers behind the deadly attacks, was a “problematic ally” in counterterrorism.

“How can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?” Terry Strada said of her husband. “Yes, we finally made it into a court and have proved that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe and then sent its agents to support the radical Islamists hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones.”

She added: “But, 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. They withheld evidence…they broke promises, both public and private, it’s been on betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying.”

Another man reading names at the NYC memorial also urged Trump to “release the unredacted files that implicate Saudi Arabia while what’s left of the victims’ families are still alive to see it.”

A federal judge ruled last year that there is sufficient evidence to suggest Saudi Arabia employed two operatives to assist the hijackers. The kingdom has denied any ties to the terror attack.

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