Why Trump's 9/11 Remarks at The Pentagon Are Meaningless

This morning President Trump commemorated the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with some remarks at the Pentagon.

Among other things, Trump said, "On that day not only did the world change but we all changed our eyes were opened to the depths of the evil we face.  On that hour of darkness we came together with renewed purpose, our common bonds never felt so strong."

Coming from Trump these words are utterly meaningless. After all, they were written for him and read off a teleprompter.

What matters is what Trump has said about 9/11 off the cuff.

We have a President who is on public record as claiming the Bush Administration "knew in advance" there would be an attack. There's a world of difference between George Tenet telling President Bush al Qaeda was planning attacks in the United States and Tenet actually telling Bush there would be a series of attack on a Tuesday morning in September 2001.

Now that Trump is President one would hope he would understand that difference. But given that he likes his intelligence briefings full of pictures I have my doubts.

We also have a President who is on public record as claiming "thousands and thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attacks. Now think about that for a minute. If this were actually true don't you think there would have been a lot of violence given the raw emotion of the time?

Of course, it is the duty of the President of the United States to pay tribute to those who lost their lives on this day and this task will fall to Donald Trump for many years to come. But given what he has said about the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the past (and what he might say off the cuff in the future) please don't expect me to believe a word he has to say about it in his ceremonial capacity.