In February 2017, Golden--speaking in defense of President Donald Trump's executive order barring persons from certain majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States--made the following inaccurate claim: "A number of terrorists that drove the planes into the — 9-11 — into the building at World Trade Center that killed 3,000 Americans — are you ready for this? They were in this community, they lived here in Bay Ridge, they were visiting in this community". Golden's spokesman, John Quaglione, later claimed that Golden had confused the 9-11 attacks with the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center; one of the 1993 attackers had, in fact, lived in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.