New York commemorated the 25th anniversary of the devastating September 11, 2001 attacks yesterday with a ceremony marked by controversy over President Donald Trump’s absence and right-wing outrage over the attendance of the city’s first Muslim mayor.

In an unusual move, Trump was paying his respects at the Pentagon, rather than joining the event in New York, where hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center and killed most of the 2,977 total victims on that world-altering day.

Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s four living predecessors -- Republican George W Bush, who was in office during the attacks, and Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton -- attended the event at the Ground Zero site. The ceremony was designed to be apolitical, with no speeches.

Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four airliners on this day in 2001. Two of the jets slammed into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, causing the iconic 110-storey buildings to collapse. A third plane struck the Pentagon, while a fourth -- believed to have been aiming for Congress or the White House -- crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back.