Donald Trump performs double fist pump as he arrives at 9/11 memorial service

Nick Charity11 September 2018

Donald Trump has sparked a backlash after performing a double fist pump as he arrived at a memorial service for the 9/11 terror attacks.

The US president was pictured with First Lady Melania Trump as he raised both fists in the air and clenched his jaw.

Images of Mr Trump's gesture as he left Air Force One in Pennslyvania were met with outrage on social media.

The president was due to attend a sombre remembrance at the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville.

The gesture has sparked outrage on social media
AFP/Getty Images

United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001 after passengers and flight crew thwarted a hijacking by a group of terrorists, and are heralded as fallen heroes for ensuring the plane couldn't be used to hit any populated areas.

The picture was shared by reporters instantly, quickly going viral across social media as the president’s critics condemned his conduct ahead of the memorial event.

On the day of the attack, Mr Trump boasted on New York's Channel 9 News that, after the towers collapsed, Trump Tower at 40 Wall Street was the tallest in Manhattan.

In a statement ahead of Mr Trump’s Tuesday speech, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president’s focus for the day was “remembering the lives that were lost, and certainly honouring the individuals who were not only lost that day, but also put their lives on the line to help in that process.”

9/11 Anniversary 2018 - In pictures

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While on his way to the memorial service, the president tweeted, “17 years since September 11th!" and commented on the “GREAT job” his private counsel Rudy Giuliani did while serving as mayor of New York at the time.

Nearly 3,000 people died on September 11 when planes were also flown into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in an attack planned by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Mr Trump, a New York native making his first visit as president to the Shanksville site, was set to focus on honoring the many lives that were lost that day.

"Certainly the focus will be on remembering that horrific day and remembering the lives that were lost, and certainly honoring the individuals who were not only lost that day, but also put their lives of the line to help in that process," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

Some have criticised his rocky start to a very sombre day, having focused his twitter feed on attacking Russia's investigation of the White House earlier this morning.

But CNN reported that - after the aggressive gesture - he settled into the occasion and gave a "sober" speech at the memorial

"We grieve together for every mother and father, sister and brother, son and daughter, who was stolen from us at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and here in this Pennsylvania field," Trump said.

"We honor their sacrifice by pledging to never flinch in the face of evil and to do whatever it takes to keep America safe."

Flight 93 was heading to San Francisco from Newark, New Jersey, when passengers stormed the plane's cockpit and sought to take control from the hijackers, crashing in a field and preventing what was thought to be another planned target in Washington.

Family members of Flight 93, some of their voices breaking, read aloud the names of the 40 passengers and crew members who died. Memorial bells tolled.

Trump and his wife, Melania, traveled to the Flight 93 National Memorial from Washington and paused for a moment of reflection while overlooking the field where the plane crashed.

"They boarded the plane as strangers and they entered eternity linked forever as true heroes," Trump said of the passengers and crew.

"This field is now a monument to American defiance. This memorial is now a message to the world: America will never, ever submit to tyranny."

Additional Reporting by AP.

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