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9/11 birthday by the numbers.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump will pay tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks at a ceremony in western Pennsylvania, assuming a rare role that has sometimes been difficult for him: Chief Comforter.

First Lady Melania Trump will accompany her husband to the event marking the 17th anniversary of the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people and sparked battles against violent extremists.

After hijackers carried planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, about forty passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 – headed to the Capitol or the White House

In the midst of the ensuing fight – started with the brave phrase "Let's roll" – the plane crashed into a field in Somerset County, north of Shanksville.

To mark this solemn occasion, Trump must make an official speech, something he does not usually do when he pronounces the partisan and free campaign speeches he's held before the mid-term convention of November 6th. elections.

Earlier this month, while Obama and Bush delivered glowing speeches for the late Senator John McCain, experts compared their speaking style to that of Trump, who criticized what critics call the national breakfast. of prayer.

"Trump is not very good at speaking the language of common values," said Jennifer R. Mercieca, associate professor at the department of communications at Texas A & M University, who has studied the president's rhetorical style. .

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In his inaugural speech, a speech often used by new presidents to appease bad feelings after a tough campaign, Trump accused previous administrations of allowing poverty, a leak of industrial jobs and a proliferation of criminal gangs.

"This American carnage stops here and stops now," Trump said. It was far from the speech that historians often cite as a healing approach – Abraham Lincoln's inaugural inaugural in 1861 in which he was inviting the "best angels" of the nation.

After the white supremacist rally in August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, which resulted in the death of a counter-protester, Mr. Trump said that there were "blame" on both sides. 39; another. "

And during the National Prayer Breakfast in 2017, Trump winced in mocking Arnold Schwarzenegger, his successor as host of the TV show "The Apprentice."

"That's part of the job he's been fighting with: being the personification of the state, overtaking politics, partisan politics in particular," said Peter Feaver, professor of political science and politics public at Duke University.

Feaver, the chief of strategic planning for the National Security Council during Bush's second term, said, "I do not think we should expect a moment of growing rhetoric for the president."

Visitors to the National Flight 93 Memorial stop in front of the Wall of names containing the names of the 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93 who were killed in this field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on May 31, 2018. . (Photo: AP)

Yet Trump has also received good reviews for other series of remarks, including his first speech on September 11 last year, in which he addressed the subject without advertising.

Speaking to the Pentagon, one of the three sites attacked with hijacked planes on September 11, 2001, Trump said: "The terrorists who attacked us thought they could incite fear and weaken our spirit. will soon join the long list of defeated enemies who have dared to test our courage. "

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the president would focus on "remembering lost lives" and honor those who "put their lives in danger" to respond to the tragedy.

The Shanksville ceremony will include the sounds of the Tower of Voices, a 93-foot high concrete and steel structure with a wind chime for each person on board with its own distinctive sound.

The tower is the final phase of Flight 93 National Memorial, with an area of ​​2,200 acres. A reception center opened three years ago; a commemorative place was dedicated to the 10th anniversary in 2011.

The September 11th commemoration has become an annual event for Presidents since President George W. Bush seized a megaphone to speak to workers in the wreckage of the destroyed World Trade Center.

While some of the workers said they could not hear it, Bush said, "I can hear you, I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you!" And the people who hit these buildings will hear all of us soon! "

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