(John Dentato)
Donald Trump and the Twin Towers II model at Trump Tower.
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which occurred 14 years ago Friday, real-estate mogul Donald Trump became the most prominent backer of a plan to rebuild Manhattan's World Trade Center.
Trump, the current front-runner in the Republican presidential primary, lent his support to the effort in 2005. Among other things, he made media appearances during which he blasted the proposed Freedom Tower that was eventually built on the WTC site as "disgusting."
"It doesn't represent what we want to have represented. What I want to see built is the World Trade Center stronger and maybe a story taller, and that's what everybody wants," Trump said in an appearance on MSNBC. "It's just terrible what's happened in New York. ... We should have the World Trade Center bigger and better."
The proposal to rebuild the Twin Towers, which were destroyed on 9/11, was the brainchild of structural engineer Ken Gardner. He created a plan to rebuild the buildings five stories higher with more modern safety features. Gardner's proposal also included a 9/11 memorial, made with panels from the original towers.
In an interview with Business Insider Friday, Gardner said Trump reached out to him after seeing his model for the project, which he dubbed "Twin Towers II." Gardner had been discussing the plan on MSNBC and Trump encountered his model when he went on the channel for an unrelated interview.
"He just realized, like most of the public did at the time, that that was the solution," Gardner said of Trump. "It was just based on, in Israel, whenever a building was destroyed by terrorists, they put it back. And in this case, since the building was as old as it was, we were putting it back, but a modern version of it."
In the MSNBC appearance, Trump said building the Freedom Tower would grant a victory to the terrorists who attacked America.
"The terrorists win if we build this job the way it is," Trump said of the Freedom Tower plan. "If we rebuild the World Trade Center, but a story taller and stronger, then we win. I mean, I don't want to have the terrorists win ... and that's what's going to happen if we build this pile of junk."
(REUTERS/Ben Brewer)
Trump's objections to the Freedom Tower plan included its appearance and the fact that it was shorter than the original Twin Towers without a large spire that dominated the top of the building.
"I'd rather have nothing than what they're building," Trump said. "It's a terrible design. It was designed by an egghead architect who really doesn't have a lot of experience at designing something like this."