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President Donald Trump honored deceased volunteer firefighter Welles Crowther – also known as the “man in the red bandana” – with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday.
Speaking during Tunnel to Towers’ “Steel Across America” event in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, President Donald Trump praised Crowther, whose actions during 9/11 saved up to 18 people’s lives, sparking nationwide admiration and a series of documentary features on his bravery.
“Today we also remember another hero of 9/11. After the plane hit the south tower, a group of people on the 78th floor were trapped with broken bones, charred skin and eyes and lungs filled with black smoke. Death was all about them. It was certain they were sure they were going to die. Then suddenly a rescuer appeared. They call him the man in the red bandana. Have you heard that term? The man in the red bandana has become more famous than me. I don’t like it. Very unhappy. But he’s become much more famous than me,” Trump joked.
“He’s the man in the red bandana. He had found the only stairwell that barely survived. The stairwells were all knocked down. You couldn’t get by. Impassable. He found an opening in one of the stairwells, and the impact was so great there was no other way down but this one little opening, this one little hole. And [he] traveled down from the 104th floor to look for those trapped and dying,” Trump continued.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, while standing behind protective glass, during the Steel Across America event featuring a 21-foot steel beam recovered from the World Trade Centre South Tower, on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 8, 2026. (REUTERS/Nathan Howard)
“When he heard cries for help on the 78th floor, he began extinguishing the fires, blocking the exit, directing survivors who could walk, of which there weren’t that many. He helped them out physically. They literally pulled him out toward the only working stairwell and carried those who couldn’t walk. And he just did things that people said were not even imaginable because they knew they were dead. They said, ‘we’re goners.’ One guy was screaming, ‘we’re goners! We’re goners!’ He didn’t know those he helped and, nor who would have known, but he willingly made all of these trips up and down, up and down, up and down, over and over again, saving life after life,” Trump added.
“That rescuer was a 24-year-old equities trader and volunteer firefighter from Rockland County named Welles Crowther. And Welles’ father, also a firefighter, great firefighter, had given him that bandana as a very special tribute when he was a boy. He probably knew something about his son. When asked why he always kept it, Welles replied ‘with this red bandana, I’m going to change the world. I’m going to change the world with this bandana.’ Little did he know, on September 11th Welles saved many, many people before losing his own life in the South Tower lobby. When the building came down, he was in the lobby and that building came down, thousands of tons of steel,” Trump said.
“Today, in honor of his incredible bravery and all of the other countless unknown acts of heroism that day, it is my privilege to award the very special, the highest honor that we give, the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. We want to award that to Welles and the Welles family. Wells is up there looking down at his mom and his sister, his family,” Trump said.
Trump was speaking during the Tunnel to Towers’ “Steel Across America” event, in which the organization takes a 16,900 lb steel beam that came from the World Trade Center’s South Tower across the country.
The president also invited Crowthers’ mother on stage to speak about her son after revealing he had promised her years earlier to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to her son.
US President Donald Trump presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Alison Crowther, on behalf of her son Welles Remy Crowther, a volunteer firefighter who died in the September 11, 2001, attacks during a “Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on September 8, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
“That Welles’ light still shines brilliantly today, even after 25 years, is testament to his legacy of courage, compassion and love for humanity that continues to inspire and uplift others,” Alison Crowther said.
“Wells, however, would not have been able to do what he did as effectively on 9/11 if it had not been for the training and experience he gained as a member of Empire Hook and Ladder Company Number one of Upper Nyack. Empire is a volunteer company and the members are fully trained firefighters. They have other jobs and responsibilities, businesses to run and their own families. But when the alarm goes off at any time, day or night, they respond to the call to save life and property. This is a calling. And Welles – following in the footsteps of his father, Jefferson – joined Empire at the age of 16. He was no longer an equities trader on 9/11, he was a firefighter,” she said.
