Donald Trump: Twin Towers 'were not great buildings' until 'their demise' on 9/11

A week after the terror attacks on Sep. 11, 2001, real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump -- after boasting that with the World Trade Center gone, his building was now the "tallest in Lower Manhattan" -- said that the Twin Towers were "not great buildings" until they fell down.

Crooks and Liars pointed to a Sep. 18, 2001 New York Post story about Trump's conversation with a Page Six reporter one week after the attacks.

“Once they get it cleared -- and that is going to be a very long process -- we will all have a better idea of what can be done on the site,” Trump said. “The current mindset is to put up new towers, and I agree with that.”

He went on to say that the Twin Towers only became "great" when they were destroyed.

“To be blunt, they were not ‘great’ buildings,” said Trump. “They only became great upon their demise last Tuesday.”

“What goes up there should be a form of memorial to the dead. The buildings need to be a soul-soaring statement of our faith in the future,” he said. "This is a city largely based on great skyscrapers, and they will always be the essence of New York. That won’t change, just as the character of the people who live here will not be altered by this tragedy.”

Politico reported this weekend that on the day of the attacks, Trump's first thought was to boast to interviewer Alan Marcus that with the Twin Towers out of the way, his property at 40 Wall Street was now the tallest building in Lower Manhattan.

The 40 Wall Street building, Trump said, "actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest-and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second-tallest. And now it's the tallest."