US pauses to remember September 11 attacks 25 years later

US President Donald Trump has marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by attending a ceremony at the Pentagon commemorating the lives lost.

Al-Qaeda militants hijacked four planes on September 11, 2001, killing nearly 3000 people in attacks that upended American foreign policy and national security.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: New York marks 25 years since September 11 attacks

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump listened as the names of the 184 people killed at the Pentagon that day were read aloud at the start of the ceremony.

Earlier, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and top military officials stood outside and watched as a giant American flag was unfurled on the building struck by one of those planes a quarter of a century ago.

It is the second year in a row that Trump has marked the day at the Pentagon.

The president, who hails from New York, last attended the ground-zero ceremony there in 2024.

Vice President JD Vance attended the New York observance alongside former presidents George W. Bush - who was in office on 9/11 - Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.

Other administration officials attended ceremonies in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where a fourth plane crashed in a field 25 years ago, after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.

At a Tuesday event at the Ellipse just outside the White House, Trump vowed to “never forget” victims, noting the September 11 attacks were one of the few moments in history that “divide time into really what came before” and after.

That event, spearheaded by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, showcased a massive, 6.4-metre, nearly 7700kg steel beam recovered from the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York.

Travelling for months across the country as part of the Steel Across America tour, the beam was in New York for a procession on Friday retracing the steps of fallen New York City firefighter Stephen Siller.

On Wednesday, Trump issued a proclamation naming Friday as ‘Patriot Day 2026’, recounting the chronology of the 2001 day on which “the peace of our nation was shattered” and calling his administration “unwavering in its commitment to ensure that our nation is defended by the strongest and most lethal military the world has ever known”.

The Republican midterm convention on Thursday night observed the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with families onstage in Dallas and firefighters in uniform as the song Ave Maria was played.