NEW YORK (AP) – The government of President Donald Trump said on Friday that it will investigate whether the federal government can take control of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City.
The site in Lower Manhattan, where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by hijacked jetliners on 11 September 2001, has two memorial baths surrounded by waterfalls and parapets with the names of the dead and an underground museum. Since the opening of the public in 2014, the Memorial Plaza and Museum have been run by a public charity, now chaired by former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, a frequent Trump critic.
The White House confirmed that the administration has had “provisional exploratory discussions” about the idea, but refused to work out. The office noted that last year the Republican promised during his campaign to make the site a national monument, protected and maintained by the federal government.
But civil servants of the National 11 September Memorial & Museum say that, according to the current laws, the federal government cannot unilaterally take over the site, which is located on the country owned by the port authority of New York and New Jersey.
The US government that should save the costs and management of the site, also has 'no sense', given the efforts of Trump to pair back the federal bureaucracy dramatically, said Beth Hillman, president and CEO of the organization.
“We are proud that our exhibitions tell stories about courage and patriotism and are convinced that our current operational model has honorably and effectively served the audience,” she said, and noted that the organization has collected $ 750 million in private funds and has welcomed around 90 million visitors since the opening.
Last year the museum generated more than $ 93 million in income and spent around $ 84 million in operational costs, leaving a surplus of almost $ 9 million when the depreciation is charged, according to museum officers and the most recently available tax returns.
New York Gov. In the meantime, Kathy Hochul expressed her own concern about a federal takeover, referring to the recent efforts of the Trump government to influence how American history is told by his national monuments and museums, including the Smithsonian.
The acquisition -idea also comes a few months after the Trump administration is briefly cut, but then recovered, staff with a federal program that offers health benefits to people with diseases that can be linked to toxic dust from the destroyed World Trade Center.
“The 9/11 Memorial is from New Yorkers – the families, survivors and first response who have worn this inheritance for more than two decades and have ensured that we never forgot,” Hochul said in a statement. “Before he gets involved in this holy site, the president must start honoring survivors and supporting the families of victims.”
Anthoula Katsimatides, a museum board member who lost her brother, John, in the attack, said she saw no reason to change the owner.
“They do incredible work on the story of that day without sugar cohering,” she said. “It is run so well, I don't see why there should be a change. I don't see what advantage there would be.”
However, the monument and the museum have also been the target of criticism over the years of some members of the major community of the 9/11 families, some of whom have criticized the ticket prices or have called for changes in the Museum's exhibitions.
Trump spokespersons refused to respond to the comments.
In total, almost 3,000 people were killed when the hijackers crashed Jetliners in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in the southwest of Pennsylvania during the attacks of 11 September. More than 2,700 of those victims died in the fiery collapse of the Twin Towers of the Trade Center.
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