Trump Repeats Debunked Lie About Predicting 9/11
President Trump repeated a discredited lie on Monday that he predicted the September 11 attacks, claiming he warned about Osama bin Laden in his 2000 book “The America We Deserve” and that he told people to “get him” a year before the attacks. Trump made the statement while discussing U.S. security commitments and Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz at a Kennedy Center board meeting, asserting he had “predicted a lot of things” including the terrorist attack that killed thousands.
Fact-checkers, including CNN’s Daniel Dale, have repeatedly debunked Trump’s claim. Trump’s 2000 book mentioned bin Laden only once in passing while discussing broader U.S. foreign policy failures, not as a specific prediction of the 9/11 attacks. The single reference described bin Laden as a shadowy figure in a list of rotating U.S. adversaries, contradicting Trump’s assertion that he specifically warned about an imminent attack on the World Trade Center.
The book did contain a general warning about potential terrorist attacks on the United States, but Trump framed this as a widely recognized risk among analysts rather than a unique prediction. Trump did not identify bin Laden as the likely perpetrator of such attacks, and fact-checkers have shown his book contained only a brief, vague reference to bin Laden. Despite being corrected multiple times, Trump continues repeating the lie, most recently in October when addressing sailors during U.S. Navy celebrations.
Trump used the false 9/11 claim to support his broader argument that allies have failed to adequately support U.S. security interests. He also blamed former President Bill Clinton for allegedly missing an opportunity to capture bin Laden, though Trump provided no evidence for this assertion. The lie serves Trump’s pattern of manufacturing false credentials to justify demands that other nations increase military commitments in regions like the Persian Gulf.