“What the Terrorists Couldn’t Destroy: How Trump Finished What Flight 93 Stopped”
I’ve been crying on and off all day. I’m a middle-aged guy who fixes air conditioning systems for the US Air Force in Utah. I don’t cry easy. But I saw the photographs of what they’re doing to the White House, and I can’t stop seeing them.
Backhoes tearing into the East Wing. Debris everywhere. Water spraying across the rubble. It looks like 9/11. It looks like the Pentagon after the plane hit.
And then I remembered: There was another plane on 9/11.
United Flight 93
You remember. The one that crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Todd Beamer and the other passengers who fought back. “Let’s roll.” They knew that plane was aimed at either the White House or the Capitol Building. They knew the terrorists wanted to destroy the symbols of American democracy.
And those Americans gave their lives to stop it.
The White House still stood on September 12th, 2001, because brave people died protecting it.
Twenty-Four Years Later
Now Donald Trump is tearing it down with construction equipment.
Not to restore it. Not to preserve it. Just for a vanity project, to build himself a $250 million ballroom so he can throw bigger parties during his second term.
While the government is shut down. While 24 million Americans are about to lose their healthcare subsidies. While families are deciding whether they can afford Christmas this year.
He promised the construction wouldn’t “touch” the existing White House. He lied. Of course he lied. He always lies. The East Wing is being demolished as I write this.
Why This One Hits Different
I’ve watched Trump do terrible things for years now. The chaos. The cruelty. The corruption. I thought I was numb to it.
But this one broke through.
Maybe it’s because the symbolism is too perfect. The People’s House—literally being torn down by a man who thinks he owns it.
Maybe it’s because the images look so much like 9/11. That same sick feeling of watching something sacred being destroyed.
Or maybe it’s because I finally understood: Trump is finishing what the terrorists on Flight 93 couldn’t do.
The Cracks Are Spreading
Last night at work, a coworker came by my office after hours. His name is Ortega. His parents brought him across the border when he was four years old. They spent years getting their green cards, “doing it right” as people say. Now he works on a US Air Force base.
He asked me quietly: “Do you like Trump?”
I usually don’t talk politics at work. But he started with: “I’m a Republican, but I can’t stand Trump anymore.”
We talked for a while. Two Republicans in Utah, on a military base, both heartbroken at what’s happening to our country.
On my street, the last Trump flag came down this week. Replaced with the American flag. “I’m still patriotic,” that house is saying. “But Trump isn’t America.”
A Guy With a Southern Accent
I saw a video today. A red-haired guy with a beard and a southern drawl. He looks like every caricature of a Trump supporter you’ve ever seen. Except he’s not wearing the red hat.
He’s talking about the White House demolition in a voice full of calm, heartsick horror. He can barely get the words out.
I started crying watching him. Because he’s right. What they’re doing to the People’s House is an abomination.
And if that guy—who looks like Trump country, sounds like Trump country—if he’s breaking down over this, then something fundamental has shifted.
What Flight 93 Means
Those passengers on Flight 93 had minutes to decide. They knew they were probably going to die. They chose to fight back anyway, to protect the symbols of American democracy from people who wanted to destroy them.
They succeeded. The White House stood. The Capitol stood.
For twenty-four more years, those buildings represented what those passengers died for: the knowledge that America is worth protecting, that our democracy is worth defending, that some things are more important than any individual life.
And now Trump is tearing it down for a tacky ballroom.
Not because it’s falling apart. Not because it needs modernization. Because his ego demands it. Because he wants to turn the White House into a Mar-a-Lago resort destination.
The terrorists on Flight 93 wanted to destroy American democracy.
Now Trump is tearing down the People’s House with a backhoe.
What Happens Next
I don’t know if Congress will stop him. I don’t know if the courts will intervene. I don’t know if enough Republicans will finally say “enough.”
But I know this: Something broke this week.
The last guy on my street finally took down his Trump flag. Ortega came to my office looking for someone who understood. The red-haired southern guy broke down on camera.
People are looking at the rubble of the East Wing and finally seeing what Trump really is: not a populist champion of working people, but a man who will tear down everything sacred simply to satisfy his own grotesque ego.
The passengers on Flight 93 gave their lives so the White House would still be standing.
We owe it to them—and to ourselves—to stop the man who’s about to finish the job the terrorists started.
The People’s House belongs to us. Not to him.