Trump called out on brazen new ‘totally made up story' about 9/11: ‘Despicable liar'

President Donald Trump on Tuesday made another dubious claim about his involvement in the recovery effort following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, leading critics to call him 'delusional' and a 'despicable liar.' Trump, who had already been brutally fact-checked over claims of extensive involvement in the recovery effort in 2019, claimed Tuesday that two firemen 'lifted me up' from the rubble amid concerns that a nearby building was going to collapse. 'I just thank my people. I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened and … they had no hesitation,' Trump said Tuesday during an event at The Ellipse in Washington, D.C. honoring 9/11 first responders. 'Everybody went down with me. We went down as a big group of people, wasn't too much we could do, I'll be honest. It was raw – nobody ever seen anything like it, ever. We had other buildings — United States Steel building was creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down. The truth is it creaked a lot. It creaked — it still creaks. But it never came down,' Trump continued. 'I'll never forget — two firemen. We thought it was coming down on top of us that two firemen — big, strong guys — and I'm not the smallest guy in the world — they grabbed me under the arms [and said], 'you got to get out of here.' 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. I said, 'fellas, I can run myself.' But they were amazing. They thought it was coming down. It didn't come down,' the president concluded. There has been no evidence that Trump helped clear rubble at Ground Zero, let alone that he fell and was carried by firefighters. Trump's claims on Tuesday drew backlash from his critics. 'Trump is a despicable liar. This is a totally made up story. Where is the MSM fact checking this crock of bulls---???' posted former Republican strategist Tara Setmayer. 'Don't allow Trump to sully the 9/11 tragedy with his sick fantasies.' 'None of this happened. None of it. Somehow, he's telling NEW LIES about 9/11, and if that doesn't piss you the f--- off, nothing will,' added liberal influencer Joanne Carducci, known as JoJoFromJerz on social media. 'Hogwash,' posted Joyce White Vance, an MS NOW contributor and former federal prosecutor in the Obama administration. 'But I guess if you can rewrite the history of January 6 you can rewrite 9/11 too.' 'Our president is completely delusional,' added Huffington Post White House correspondent S.V. Date. Progressive activist Melanie D'Arrigo pointed out that Trump did a phone interview with a local New York television station moments after the attacks, contradicting the president's claim. 'On 9/11, Trump called into channel 9 news from the safety of Trump Tower in midtown to brag about how he now had the tallest building in downtown Manhattan,' D'Arrigo posted. In a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, Trump reiterated his false claims about assisting in recovery work: