President Donald Trump tore into New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after cameras showed the two Democrats appearing to laugh during the reading of victims’ names at Ground Zero. Trump called the moment “terrible” and said a September 11th memorial was no place for such behavior. The brief interaction quickly spread across social media after viewers saw Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez smiling and speaking together. Their conversation wasn’t captured by the television broadcast.
The footage came from Friday’s ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan, where families and mourners marked the 25th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Relatives read aloud the names of those murdered on September 11th, along with the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 2001 attacks. Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez were among the elected officials attending the solemn observance.
A television feed first showed a visibly emotional young man standing near the memorial before the broadcast cut to Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez. The pair could be seen smiling and appearing to laugh as they spoke. Because the broadcast carried no audio from their conversation, it remains unknown what either Democrat said. The timing of the exchange, while victims’ names were being read, sparked immediate criticism.
As Fox News reported, the president didn’t hesitate before condemning the pair. “I think it’s terrible,” Trump said. “It’s not a place to be laughing, especially in that case.” The president focused on the point in the ceremony when the exchange took place. “I thought it was terrible,” Trump continued. “The fact that they were laughing together at a very important part of the ceremony was inappropriate.” His comments came after the short clip had circulated widely and drawn questions about the conduct expected from public officials at Ground Zero.
Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas was among the elected Republicans who criticized the pair after seeing the footage. “As the names of Americans murdered on September 11th are read aloud at Ground Zero, AOC and Mamdani are laughing and smiling together,” Hunt wrote on X. “There is a time and a place for politics. This isn’t it. Ground Zero is sacred ground.” He added, “September 11 is not a photo op, it is not a networking event.”
Watch Trump’s response here:
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Mamdani had already faced opposition before arriving at the memorial, with a petition urging him to stay away from Ground Zero gathering roughly 110,000 signatures. New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov also ripped the captured exchange, writing, “After thousands of families of victims of terror beg Mamdani not to show up, he stands there and laughs while families weep.” Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani similarly criticized Mamdani’s attendance. “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming,” Giuliani said.
The objections also came after Mamdani’s handling of a ceremonial pen used to sign executive orders related to the 25th anniversary of the attacks. Fox News reported that Mamdani handed the pen to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and asked her to pass it to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem. Kassem previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda operative who pleaded guilty to war-crimes charges. Critics on social media characterized the pen handoff as a slap in the face to victims’ relatives, while the petition declared that the anniversary should feature “an unambiguous rejection of the violence and extremism that defined that day.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.