US President Donald Trump has often made false or unproven claims about what he supposedly saw and did on the day of the September 11 attacks. Now, ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, he narrated a story about allegedly being carried away by firefighters due to fears of an imminent building collapse at some point after the incident.

At an event for 9/11 first responders at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said that he was with a crew of workers at Ground Zero when he saw that the “United States Steel building was creaking”. The building is now known as One Liberty Plaza.

He added that two firemen grabbed him under the arms and lifted him up amid fears that the building would collapse. “And they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I’m big. They lifted me up and they started running with me,” Trump continued.

Fact-Checking Trump’s 9/11 Claims

On September 11, Trump was at his tower in Midtown Manhattan when the attack happened, miles away from the Twin Towers, as per CNN. He had earlier switched between claims on visiting Ground Zero “a couple of days” after the attack or shortly after the building collapse.

Trump’s comments about the US Steel building “coming down on top of us” and being carried away by firefighters gave the impression that he was inside an unstable building. But there is no public evidence he was actually inside One Liberty Plaza in 2001 in the days after the attacks.

In a 2016 telling of the story, Trump said that he was not inside when the firemen supposedly moved him; he claimed that the building was “not so far” and appeared to be on the verge of collapse.

While the Republican leader did not explicitly say that he or his workers helped to clear rubble or assisted with rescue efforts at Ground Zero, he has made such claims in the past.

On Tuesday, Trump immediately thanked “my people” after mentioning rescue and recovery crews, implying that he organised a group that worked at the site.

However, he has never provided any evidence to support his claims.

News accounts that came in days after 9/11 include references to Trump high-fiving police officers and volunteers on their way to the World Trade Center site, as per the Associated Press.

There is also no report that the One Liberty Plaza building still creaks. The building opened in October 2001 and functions normally to date.