President Donald Trump criticized Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani after video circulated showing the two Democrats smiling and appearing to laugh during the reading of victims’ names at Friday’s 9/11 Memorial ceremony in Lower Manhattan.
“I think it’s terrible,” Trump said when asked about the footage. “It’s not a place to be laughing, especially in that case.”
“I thought it was terrible,” he continued. “The fact that they were laughing together at a very important part of the ceremony was inappropriate.”
The clip came from a television feed of Friday’s ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The broadcast showed a young man visibly emotional near the memorial before cutting to Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez smiling and speaking to each other. Their conversation was not audible, and it remains unclear what the two discussed.
The footage spread quickly online, drawing sharp criticism from other public figures. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, wrote on X: “As the names of Americans murdered on September 11th are read aloud at Ground Zero, AOC and Mamdani are laughing and smiling together. There is a time and a place for politics. This isn’t it. Ground Zero is sacred ground. September 11 is not a photo op, it is not a networking event.”
Commentator Meghan McCain also weighed in, asking on X, “Why the f— are these two laughing?” New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Republican, wrote: “After thousands of families of victims of terror beg Mamdani not to show up, he stands there and laughs while families weep. This is NYC’s Mayor.”
Mamdani had already drawn opposition from some victims’ families before the ceremony. A petition urging him not to attend gathered more than 110,000 signatures, but Mamdani went to Ground Zero and stayed for the service, where he was seen standing somberly at other points.
Not everyone accepted the video at face value. Michael Ragusa, who has been part of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s entourage, disputed the characterization of the exchange in a post on X. “The videos of [them] laughing are not true. I was standing next to them the whole time,” he wrote. “The camera just caught her greeting him hello. Multiple other politicians were laughing and joking behind me. Republicans and Democrats.”
Fox News Digital said it had reached out to Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez for comment.
