{"id":73900,"date":"2026-05-22T19:07:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T00:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/trump-announces-highest-civilian-honor-for-9-11-hero-remembered-as-the-man-in-the-red-bandana\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T19:07:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T00:07:53","slug":"trump-announces-highest-civilian-honor-for-9-11-hero-remembered-as-the-man-in-the-red-bandana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/trump-announces-highest-civilian-honor-for-9-11-hero-remembered-as-the-man-in-the-red-bandana\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump announces highest civilian honor for 9\/11 hero remembered as the &#8216;Man in the Red Bandana&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a> announced during a rally in New York that he was posthumously awarding the nation\u2019s highest civilian honor to Welles Remy Crowther, the 9\/11 hero remembered as the &#8220;Man in the Red Bandana&#8221; after he repeatedly led victims to safety from the burning South Tower before dying in the terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Trump revealed the Presidential Medal of Freedom honor during a Rockland County stop on Friday with Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who had urged the president to recognize Crowther\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/military\/heroism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">heroism<\/a> ahead of the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. Crowther, a 24-year-old equities trader who also worked as a volunteer firefighter, became a symbol of American courage after survivors recounted being guided through smoke and wreckage by a man wearing a red bandana over his face.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At the request of Bruce, and Mike, and some of the political \u2014 great political people we have, and we are approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11th, 2001, a dark day that will live in infamy. We are posthumously awarding Welles the Presidential Medal of Freedom,&#8221; Trump told the Rockland County crowd, earning a resounding applause.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/fox-nation-tunnels-towers-explores-how-americas-pastime-helped-grieving-new-york-heal-after-9-11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>FOX NATION, TUNNELS TO TOWERS EXPLORES HOW AMERICA\u2019S PASTIME HELPED A GRIEVING NEW YORK HEAL AFTER 9\/11<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the highest award outside of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-awards-medal-honor-three-soldiers-honors-unsurpassed-courage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Congressional Medal of Honor<\/a> \u2014 those are the two biggies and Welles has one of them. I just want to congratulate his great mother in doing a phenomenal job in raising that young man. Boy, what bravery, saved those people and became a legend in a sense, nobody else would have done what he did. So he&#8217;s going to be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The president subsequently brought up Welles&#8217; mother, Alison Crowther, who addressed the pro-Trump crowd momentarily, describing the award bestowed on her son as a &#8220;huge honor.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s such a beautiful thing that even 25 years later, Welles&#8217; light still shines brightly,&#8221; she told the crowd, noting she has traveled the world telling her son&#8217;s story to places as far away as Jordan. Alison Crowther remarked that in these travels, when she tells children Welles&#8217; story, &#8220;They&#8217;re tremendously moved and inspired &#8230; to be better people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/new-911-museum-exhibit-aims-connect-younger-americans-attacks-powerful-artifacts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>NEW 9\/11 MUSEUM EXHIBIT AIMS TO CONNECT YOUNGER AMERICANS TO THE ATTACKS THROUGH POWERFUL ARTIFACTS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Welles, an equities trader who worked on the 104th floor of the South Tower, was in his office when the first aircraft hit the North Tower that morning. He left his mother a voicemail shortly after the towers were struck, letting her know he was okay, but his body was later found amid the rubble.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/terror\/september-11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">9\/11 Memorial<\/a> &amp; Museum, Welles &#8220;made three trips to the sky lobby, saving as many people as he could, until the burning building collapsed,&#8221; with some reports indicating he saved up to 18 lives that day. As he did so, Welles covered his nose and mouth with a red bandana he kept at his desk.<\/p>\n<p>That red bandana is currently displayed at the 9\/11 museum in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/new-york-city\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York City<\/a>. The Tunnels to Towers Foundation, a nonprofit that supports first responders and their families, including those who became victims after 9\/11, said Welles always kept a red bandana at his desk.<\/p>\n<p>The foundation recounted how, when he was asked why he always carried the red bandana, Welles replied: &#8220;With this red bandana, I\u2019m going to change the world.&#8221; His father, the foundation said, told Welles to always carry a red bandana on him for &#8220;messy jobs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People can live 100 years and not have the compassion, the wherewithal to do what he did,&#8221; a survivor rescued by Crowther has said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump announced during a rally in New York that he was posthumously awarding the nation\u2019s highest civilian honor to Welles Remy Crowther, the 9\/11 hero remembered as the &#8220;Man in the Red Bandana&#8221; after he repeatedly led victims to safety from the burning South Tower before dying in the terrorist attacks. Trump revealed &#8230; <a title=\"Trump announces highest civilian honor for 9\/11 hero remembered as the &#8216;Man in the Red Bandana&#8217;\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/trump-announces-highest-civilian-honor-for-9-11-hero-remembered-as-the-man-in-the-red-bandana\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump announces highest civilian honor for 9\/11 hero remembered as the &#8216;Man in the Red Bandana&#8217;\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}