Donald Trump has spent a quarter-century telling stories about where he was and what he did in the aftermath of September 11.

But this time, the backlash came fast.

After recounting a dramatic story in which he said two firefighters physically carried him away from a building they feared was about to collapse near Ground Zero, the president unleashed a sprawling 476-word Truth Social response, insisting his account was accurate and posting a barrage of old photographs and television clips to defend himself.

The eruption came after Trump spoke Tuesday at a ceremony ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

His story was extraordinary.

Trump said the former U.S. Steel Building — now known as One Liberty Plaza — was “creaking” while he was nearby.

“We thought it was coming down on top of us,” Trump said.

Then, according to the president, two firefighters grabbed him beneath the arms and began carrying him away.

“They literally lifted me up,” he recalled.

Trump even emphasized his size, joking that carrying him was no easy task before saying he eventually told the firefighters he could run on his own. CNN’s transcript confirms Trump gave that account publicly.

There was an immediate problem.

Trump was not near the World Trade Center when the planes struck on September 11, 2001. He was at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, roughly two and a half miles from Ground Zero.

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale said there is no evidence establishing that Trump was whisked away from a threatened building in the manner he described. Dale noted that Trump has told several different stories over the years about his experiences surrounding 9/11, some unsupported and others disputed.

The Daily Beast went further, characterizing Trump’s latest account as false and reporting that no public evidence supports the dramatic firefighter rescue story.

Then Trump fired back.

In a lengthy Truth Social post Tuesday night, he insisted that critics were distorting what he had said.

“I was there,” Trump declared — before adding an important qualification: he was “obviously not” at the site on the same day the towers collapsed, but arrived afterward with construction workers.

“Everything I said was exactly accurate,” he insisted.

That distinction matters.

Trump does have documented evidence showing that he was in Lower Manhattan shortly after the attacks.

Video from September 13, 2001 — two days later — shows him discussing a visit to Ground Zero and describing the devastation he had witnessed. Trump resurfaced that footage Tuesday as part of his effort to prove that he had indeed visited the disaster zone.

But footage showing Trump in Lower Manhattan after September 11 does not, by itself, establish the more dramatic claim that firefighters once physically carried him away from a building in danger of collapse.

That is the allegation at the center of the dispute.

Trump has actually told a version of the firefighter story before. CNN noted that in 2016 he placed the supposed incident a couple of days after 9/11, rather than during the attacks themselves.

The ambiguity over timing became crucial because Trump’s latest telling could easily leave listeners with the impression that he had been caught up in the immediate chaos surrounding the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Trump’s social-media response quickly expanded beyond defending that story.

He attacked New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman with a derisive nickname and personal insults while disputing reporting surrounding his decision not to attend the 25th-anniversary Ground Zero memorial in New York.

Trump said he had instead been strongly requested to attend the Pentagon commemoration while Vice President JD Vance represented the administration in New York.

But Vance had previously described the arrangement differently, saying the administration had simply decided as a team that he would travel to New York while Trump remained in Washington for the Pentagon ceremony.

Trump then continued posting.

He shared footage from interviews recorded shortly after September 11.

He posted an image of himself outside the New York Stock Exchange on September 18, 2001.

He resurfaced video of himself discussing Ground Zero.

And he repeatedly emphasized his connection to the aftermath of one of the darkest days in American history.

The extraordinary online barrage turned what might otherwise have been a single disputed anecdote into a full-scale presidential grievance campaign.

And it reopened an old controversy.

Over the years, Trump has repeatedly described himself as personally involved in the aftermath of September 11 — including claims that he brought large numbers of construction workers to help at Ground Zero.

Some first responders have said they do not remember seeing him performing recovery work, and public evidence supporting the larger claims has remained limited.

The debate is therefore not over whether Trump eventually visited Ground Zero.

There is footage showing that he did.

The question is whether the extraordinary details he has attached to that experience — including being physically carried to safety by firefighters — happened as described.

So far, no publicly produced evidence has resolved that question in his favor.

Yet Trump’s response made one thing perfectly clear:

Twenty-five years after September 11, he is not willing to let anyone else write the story of his role in that historic moment.

And when that story was challenged, the president did not quietly offer clarification.

He posted hundreds of words, old videos, photographs and furious attacks — transforming one disputed 9/11 memory into another explosive battle over Donald Trump’s version of history.