On March 16, 2026, President Trump repeated the long-debunked claim that he predicted the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, stating: “I predicted Osama Bin Laden would knock out the World Trade Center.” Trump claimed the warning appeared in his 2000 book The America We Deserve, insisting: “I said, 'You better get him. He's a bad guy.' One year before exactly.”
The book's actual content disproves Trump's claim. The America We Deserve mentions Osama bin Laden only once, in a passing reference: “One day we're told that a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Osama bin-Laden is public enemy number one, and the U.S. jetfighters lay waste to his camp in Afghanistan.” The book did not call for killing bin Laden, did not warn of an impending attack, and made no specific prediction about al Qaeda or bin Laden orchestrating an attack on the World Trade Center.
Trump has repeated this false claim for over a decade, dating back to at least 2019 when he made the same assertion while announcing ISIS leader al-Baghdadi's death. Fact-checkers at CNN, the Associated Press, and other outlets have debunked it repeatedly. The claim appeared to be part of Trump's broader effort to portray himself as a uniquely prophetic leader during the Iran war.