Donald Trump has appeared to place blame for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks squarely on the shoulders of former president George W Bush.

The comment was made in an interview with Bloomberg TV and encouraged tensions with fellow Republican candidate, and Mr Bush’s brother, Jeb Bush.

“When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Centre came down during his time,” Mr Trump said.

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When pressed on the meaning behind his words – and questioned whether he could “blame George Bush for that” – Mr Trump replied: “he was president, okay? Blame him, or don’t blame him, but he was president. The World Trade Centre came down during his reign.”

Jeb Bush later labelled the comments “pathetic” in a post to social media.

It also resulted in some labelling Mr Trump a 9/11 ‘truther’ – people who believe the government was to blame for the attack.

“Jeb Bush’s revised version of history is pure fiction,” September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows Nancy Meyer told International Business Times.

“If we were so safe during the GW Bush administration, why did 9/11 happen at all?”

About 3000 people died when the towers came down and left a deep scar on the collective American psyche.