In normal times, with normal political candidates, I wouldn't even have to say this. However, since we live in the age of Donald Trump, I do. One week from today is the anniversary of the September 11th attack. People will gather at the site of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers to pay their respects and remember. But this year there may be a problem.

Here's what caught my eye, from a political blog in the New York Times today:

Vice President Kamala Harris, President [Joe] Biden and former President Donald J. Trump are considering visits to the World Trade Center site in New York City on Sept. 11 to memorialize the 2001 attacks.

Which, of course, has the potential to get ugly, since Donald Trump is Donald Trump. The article gives two reasons why this could be problematic:

Mr. Trump has a long history of making questionable and provocative statements about what he saw on the day of the attacks.

This year, the anniversary of the attacks will come just hours after a presidential debate between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump, who have yet to meet in person but whose campaigns are tussling ahead of what is forecast to be a close election.

This will all happen the day after what could be the only debate between Kamala Harris and Trump. Tensions might be a wee bit high, in other words. And Trump already has a track record of being disrespectful about the event.

After 9/11 happened, Trump wasn't just a believer in conspiracy theories about the attacks, he had to make some up on his own. And I don't believe he's ever admitted any of them were conspiracy theories (or just plain outright lies).

Trump has claimed that the day of the attack he had seen on the news that "thousands and thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey were out in the streets celebrating. This was false, of course. He said he personally saw people jumping from the Twin Towers from his window -- which is four miles away. He claimed he sent hundreds of his own employees down to help with the cleanup (which wasn't true), and he said he donated $10,000 to a charity (who said they had never received such a donation from him).

On the morning of the attack, Trump was interviewed on a local station and had this to say:

40 Wall Street 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.

This was also complete moosepoop. Eventually, Trump even had to insert himself into the scene (since, to him, absolutely everything is all about him). In 2019, when he was signing a law to permanently fund care for emergency workers who were sickened by 9/11, Trump let loose another whopper:

Many of those affected were firefighters, police officers and other first responders. And I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.

He wasn't, and he didn't, plain and simple. And these are just the biggest of his lies and conspiracy theories about the attack. On the 20th anniversary of the attack, in 2021, Trump didn't even bother to show up at the memorial. But he did show up in 2016 when he was running for president the first time, probably because he heard Hillary Clinton was going to show up (she was visibly ill, which became its own storyline).

Next week Harris and Biden are going to show up (that story I quoted at the start of this has been updated to reflect this confirmation). So Trump is going to too, apparently.

Again -- if Donald Trump had any normal human decency or respect, this wouldn't even be a problem. However, as he proved just last week, nothing is sacred to him. He broke federal law to have a campaign photo and video of himself shot in Arlington National Cemetery, grinning and giving a "thumbs-up" by a soldier's gravestone. If he has that much contempt for the military, who knows what he'll do at Ground Zero with Harris and Biden there too? Especially the day after Debate Night.

Thankfully, none of the politicians (except perhaps Biden, since he is the sitting president) will likely be asked to speak. Instead, the names of the dead will be read aloud, as always. All the politicians have to do is sit respectfully and listen. Biden and Harris will do so, of course (because they are decent human beings). Trump might... and then again he might not. You never know.

I sincerely hope Trump will behave himself. Memorials to fallen victims of war or terror deserve the fullest respect from everyone, period. That this is even in question is a sad thing, really.

But then Trump is Trump, so you just never know....

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant