September 11 changed the world, but events since have changed it more

September 11, 2026 — 11:30am

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Imagine telling a New Yorker on the night of September 11, 2001, what her city, country and world would be like a quarter-century on.

The mayor’s office in City Hall, just a short walk from Ground Zero, would be occupied by a Muslim born in Uganda. Rudy Giuliani, who was venerated as “America’s mayor” because of the brave leadership he demonstrated amid the jagged ruins of the Twin Towers, would become a figure of ridicule. The reason he was held in such low esteem would surely be the most bewildering revelation: Giuliani ended up an adoring acolyte of the celebrity New York property tycoon who now resides in the White House, one Donald J. Trump.

It would take almost 10 years to hunt down and kill Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the attacks and the leader of al-Qaeda, a terrorist network most Americans had not even heard of. The order to carry out the special forces raid on his compound in Pakistan, a supposed ally of the United States, would be issued by a black commander-in-chief by the name of Barack Hussein Obama, who on 9/11 was a little-known state senator from Illinois.

At a black-tie dinner in Washington the night before Bin Laden was belatedly brought to justice, Obama had shown little mercy in his mockery of Donald Trump, who by now was best known as a reality TV star. The joke in May 2011, which Obama illustrated with pictures shown on giant screens, was made all the more hilarious by its absurdist comedy: that “the Donald” would one day occupy 1600 Pennsylvania........

© The Sydney Morning Herald