FalseThis is absolutely false, as you will see by the evidence below. Trump never bragged about having the tallest building in Manhattan. In fact, Trump was emphasizing how terrible the attacks were and actually never once bragged about this. Liberals are trying to make Trump out to be some insensitive, egotistical guy, but in reality the liberal media just is trying anything to bash Trump, even twisting around and making up total lies to meet their agenda by bashing Trump.
The liberal media will use anything, true or not, to try to defame Trump and promote Hillary. They made up all kinds of lies about Trump to try to create sensationalism among other liberals. It is very clear that this claim is nothing more than liberal propaganda.
Snopes, which is just another liberal media propaganda machine, tried to say it’s “mixed” and “up to interpretation”, but in reality they even posted the fake ads made up by the liberal media saying that Trump had been bragging when in reality, Trump said no such thing.
Here is the full part of the interview that the liberal media took way out of context, which was part of a news interview. Trump was only responding to a direct inquiry where he was asked about his building, 40 Wall Street, by a news reporter during an interview:
Transcription
Donald Trump: Well, I have a window that looks directly at the world Trade Center and I saw this huge explosion, I was with a group of people and I, I really couldn’t believe it, and even, I think worse than that, for years I’ve looked right directly at the building. I’d see the Empire State Building in the foreground, and the World Trade Center in the background, and now I’m looking at absolutely nothing. It’s just gone. And it’s, just hard to believe.
Allen Marcus: Donald, Allen Marcus here. Uh, your building is uh, Trump Tower, is the – one of the great tourist attractions in the world, it’s well-known universally, are you taking any, uh, precautions there in light of what happened at the World Trade Center?
Donald Trump: Well, Allen, we’ve always had, as you know, very very strong security, but there’s very little you can do about planes crashing into a building. You look at Larry Silverstein, is a terrific owner in New York and a very good friend of mine who I just called, I was very worried about him, because I assumed he was maybe in the building. He took possession of the building one week ago. As you know, he just bought the World Trade Center.
Allen Marcus: Right
Donald Trump: And, he was in his office, and he was getting ready to move into the World Trade Center over the next two weeks, so, when I just spoke to him, there’s nothing you can do when people are going to be bombing planes at your building. Now, I guess maybe the world is gonna be changing and maybe you/re gonna have F-16’s flying all over the city and such, but, it’s a pretty tough situation.
Allen Marcus: Donald, uh, you have one of the landmark buildings down in the financial district, 40 Wall Street. Uhh, did you have any damage, or did, you know, what’s – what’s happened down there?
Donald Trump: Well, it was an amazing phone call, I mean, 40 Wall street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually before the World Trade Center the tallest, and then when they built the World Trade Center it became known as the second-tallest, and now it’s the tallest. And I just spoke to my people, and they said it’s the most unbelievable sight, it’s probably seven or eight blocks away from the World Trade Center, and yet Wall Street is littered with two feet of stone and brick and mortar and steel,
and there were thousands of people walking over, the – the debris, over the Brooklyn Bridge, where they’re sending them out over the Brooklyn Bridge, to Brooklyn, and then I guess, and they’re gonna have to figure out how to get home from there.
But they have between a foot and 2 feet of debris, right in front of a building, that’s probably, you would say Allen, around six or seven blocks away.
It is very clear from this transcription that I just transcribed from listening to the news video, that Trump mentioning the height of his building was 100% relevant to the discussion. The reporter had asked him a couple things prior to Trump’s statement mentioning the height of his building:
So the reporter was
- 1) inquiring about Trump’s building (remember, Trump was not very well known at the time like he is now), and
- 2) the reporter was asking Trump to set the stage and the scene to help the audience have a picture of what it was like and what Manhattan looked like in the aftermath.
Relevant Reasons To Mention The Building’s Height
Trump had several reasons to mention the height of the building, which was directly relevant to the conversation:
- The height of the building was relevant because Trump said he could see the explosions from his window.
- The height of the building was relevant because the question was if he had any damage, so being the tallest now means a greater security risk from planes hitting the towers, as was being discussed.
- The height of the building was relevant because he was laying out the scene – that now the tallest buildings in Manhattan have collapsed which is a terrible sight, with steel and mortar everywhere, etc.
- The height of the building was relevant because mentioning it helped to set the scene to help the news audience envision Manhattan in the aftermath.
Trump didn’t just come out of the blue to mention that he had one of the largest buildings in Manhattan. It was directly relevant to the conversation.
When the liberal media said that Trump bragged about having the tallest building, the liberal media was not just saying that Trump made a statement of fact. What they were clearly implying was that Trump was being insensitive to the deaths of thousands of people by being opportunistic and using the situation to brag about how great he is. But this is completely false and a false narrative, this is not what happened at all.
What really happened is that Trump was being interviewed and was directly questioned regarding his building, and his answers regarding his building were completely relevant to the line of questioning. Trump merely mentioned a relevant statement of fact that was directly pertinent to the discussion and that directly responded to the line of inquiry.
So, this myth is busted, it is simply a lie made up by the liberal propaganda machine to try to turn people against Trump and create sensationalism off a false narrative.
More Snopes Misinformation
Snopes also lied by giving false information regarding 40 Wall Street not being the tallest building in Manhattan at the time, which is also False.
But Donald Trump never said “all of New York”. He very distinctly said “Downtown Manhattan”.
40 Wall Street actually remained the tallest building in Downtown Manhattan until 2014 when the One World Trade Center was complete.
70 Pine Street, on the other hand was the tallest lower-block building in Lower Manhattan, not Downtown Manhattan. As a result, it is correct to say that it was the largest building in Downtown Manhattan.
The whole point was that 40 Wall Street was the tallest building in the area, and this factoid was directly relevant to the facts stated above.
Sources:
List of tallest buildings in New York City | Wikipedia
The Trump Building | Wikipedia
Donald Trump spoke of having the tallest building in downtown Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks, but whether he was “bragging” is in the eye of the beholder | Snopes
Snopes LiedYes, it is apparent that Snopes is utilizing their clear and outspoken liberal bias to manipulate Snopes readers.
