9/11 Widow Blasts Presidents Over Saudi 'Cover-Up' at Memorial

At the 25th anniversary ceremony, Terry Strada accused four administrations of shielding Saudi Arabia and urged Trump to make the kingdom stop denying its role.

Terry Strada, whose husband Tom died in the World Trade Center's North Tower, was selected to read names of the 2,977 victims at the Friday morning ceremony in lower Manhattan. After honoring Tom by name, she kept speaking despite, according to the Times Herald-Record, being told beforehand by a museum official that there were to be no political statements. She asked how it could be 25 years with no justice for the role Saudi Arabia played in her husband's murder, and drew cheers from a crowd of more than a thousand relatives and survivors — a reaction the Times Herald-Record called unprecedented for the name-reading ritual.

Strada, national chair of 9/11 Families United for Justice, singled out former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, along with President Trump, claiming administration after administration chose to protect the Saudis instead of the 9/11 families. She said officials withheld evidence, vetoed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, and broke both public and private promises — 'one betrayal after another.' Fifteen of the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom has long denied involvement, making the direct rebuke before sitting and former presidents a striking breach of the memorial's apolitical tradition.

Strada referenced a massive federal lawsuit by victims' relatives and survivors alleging that at least a dozen Saudi officials, including some tied to the kingdom's spy agency, provided logistical and financial help to the hijackers. In August 2025, according to the Times Herald-Record, a federal district judge overruled Saudi Arabia's effort to dismiss the case, finding enough evidence existed to infer the kingdom employed two operatives to assist the hijackers. No trial date has been set, and the outlet reports Saudi lawyers have scheduled an appeals court appearance in the coming weeks to argue again for dismissal. Saudi Arabia has long denied the charges.

Trump did not attend the New York ceremony; the White House said he was invited to speak at the Pentagon memorial. Strada aimed her closing appeal at the absent president, saying 'President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying,' and thanked Vice President JD Vance, who attended along with Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden, urging him to carry the message back and stand with the families. The Times Herald-Record notes Trump's family company has extensive business ties in Saudi Arabia. With victims aging, families fear many will not live to see a verdict.