President Donald Trump criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over a clip captured during a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Trump condemned what he saw as “inappropriate laughter” by the duo.
“I think it’s terrible,” Trump told reporters as he departed Shannon Airport in Ireland. “It’s not a place to be laughing, especially in that case.
“I thought it was terrible,” Trump reiterated. “The fact that they were laughing together at a very important part of the ceremony was inappropriate.”
The moment came as grieving family members read out the names of loved ones killed in the attack. Other Republicans also commented on the clip, with Meghan McCain, former “The View” host and daughter of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), writing “Why the f–k are these two laughing?!?” on X.
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“How the hell do you laugh while the names of those murdered on 9/11 are being read aloud? Why would you do so?” wondered Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). However, several others pushed back on the criticism, saying the scene was taken out of context.
A CNN report provided additional context to the scene. In pool footage from an isolated camera viewed by CNN, a longer clip shows Mamdani standing with a solemn expression as the names of the attack victims are called before briefly greeting Ocasio-Cortez. She steps up beside the mayor, places her hand on his elbow and they exchange smiles and a brief embrace, the video shows. They then exchange words, and Mamdani hugs her briefly. The mayor, smiling, says something to Ocasio-Cortez, who smiles broadly. They then stand side by side as the reading of the names continues, applauding after a statement by the daughter of a police officer who died on 9/11.
Michael Ragusa, the former head of security for Rudy Giuliani — who was the city’s mayor during the terror attacks — said videos of the two leaders “laughing are not true.”
“The camera just caught her greeting him hello. Multiple other politicians were laughing and joking behind me. Republicans and Democrats,” Ragusa said on X.
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Another attendee, former Democratic New York State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, condemned the criticism as “ridiculous talking points.” She said that most politicians don’t stay for the duration of the ceremony, but Mamdani “stayed for every name and even stayed after to talk to families for 45 minutes.”
Ocasio-Cortez also stayed until the end, Niou wrote on X, adding that the brief interaction with Mamdani “was just when she walked up to him and said hello.”
The CNN report also mentioned that before the ceremony began, Mamdani walked up to Giuliani to shake his hand at the Ground Zero ceremony. The moment gained attention on social media, with some praising Mamdani for showing grace to the man who, just a few days earlier, had compared him to 9/11 hijackers and said his presence at the memorial ceremony would be offensive.
Mamdani recently announced the release of more than 170,000 pages of air quality records from the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The records reportedly show that city officials at the time knew conditions around Ground Zero were unsafe to breathe despite repeated assurances to the public.