While talking on Monday about the war he started with Iran, President Trump claimed that he predicted 9/11 “a long time ago.”“I knew about the Strait [of Hormuz], that it would be a weapon, which I predicted a long time ago, I predicted all of this stuff. You guys were very generous in that I predicted all of it,” he said, during a press conference at the Trump-Kennedy Center. “I predicted Osama bin Laden would knock out the World Trade Center, I made that prediction a year before he did it. I said ‘You better get him, he’s a bad guy.’ … One year before exactly, I wrote it in a book. You can even check. About a year before the World Trade Center came down. President Clinton actually had a shot at him, and he didn’t take it.”Trump has made this claim countless times over the years. It is false. In his 2000 book, Trump wrote, “One day we’re told that a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Osama bin-Laden is public enemy number one, and U.S. jetfighters lay waste to his camp in Afghanistan. He escapes back under some rock, and a few news cycles later it’s on to a new enemy and new crisis.”Recognizing bin Laden as a “shadowy figure” is nowhere close to predicting that he would order hijackers to fly planes into the Twin Towers.Trump: "I knew the Strait would be a weapon. I predicted it a long time ago. I predicted all of this stuff. I predicted Osama bin Laden would knock out the World Trade Center. I wrote it in a book." pic.twitter.com/tdllc55VQ4— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 16, 2026