Trump claims he predicted 9/11 but says no one listened to him
Donald Trump claimed on Air Force One that he predicted the September 11 attacks in his 2000 book “The America We Deserve” and warned about Osama Bin Laden, asserting the attacks could have been prevented if U.S. officials had acted on his warning. Trump’s assertion contradicts fact-check findings showing his book contained only a brief, vague reference to Bin Laden as a “shadowy figure” among general security threats, not a specific warning about him or al-Qaeda.
While Trump’s book did reference the possibility of a major terror attack, it neither identified Bin Laden nor al-Qaeda as potential perpetrators. By 2000, concerns about Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were already public knowledge, and U.S. intelligence agencies were actively monitoring both the organization and its leader, meaning Trump’s observations reflected widely available information rather than unique foresight.
Trump’s post-9/11 claim mirrors his pattern of associating himself with 9/11 commemoration events while promoting narratives disconnected from documented fact. His invocation of his own predictive ability, unsupported by the actual text of his book, demonstrates his use of false historical revisionism to construct an image of prescience and leadership.
(Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/trump-president-bin-laden-al-qaeda-b2895001.html)