Trump again claims book foreshadowed 9/11 | TheHill – The Hill

President TrumpDonald John Trump Comey: Mueller ‘didn’t succeed in his mission because there was inadequate transparency’ During deposition, official says he made several efforts to advocate for Marie Yovanovitch Bolton looms large as impeachment inquiry accelerates MORE on Sunday again claimed he wrote a book prior to the terror attacks on 9/11 warning about the dangers of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

“I said you have to kill him. You have to take him out. And nobody ever listened to me. … Let’s put it this way: If they had listened to me, a lot of things would have been different,” Trump said as he announced that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had died in a U.S.-led raid in Syria, The Guardian reported.

“I didn’t get any credit. I never do,” he continued, referencing his book “The America We Deserve,” which was published in 2000.

Trump in a tweet last year also claimed that his book foreshadowed bin Laden’s rise ahead of 9/11, saying, “Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!”

Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2018

But many have pushed back on his characterization of the book.

An Associated Press fact check last year pointed out that the book was published more than a year and a half before the 9/11 attacks, not “just before.”

The AP also noted that the book made a minimal reference to bin Laden and mentioned the al Qaeda leader as one of many threats to U.S. security.

Trump’s book also did not call for further U.S. action against bin Laden or al Qaeda following attacks that former President Clinton ordered in 1998 in Afghanistan and Sudan targeting the terrorist group, according to the news service. The 1998 attacks “missed” in that they did not kill bin Laden, but they did disrupt bin Laden’s network and destroy a factory in Sudan associated with the creation of a nerve gas ingredient, it added.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump also claimed that he said, “You better take him out” about bin Laden in the book. He also said he “predicted Osama bin Laden” when “nobody really knew who he was.”

The CIA and other national security operations were aware of bin Laden before the attacks on 9/11, according to the AP.

Trump did predict a terrorist attack that would make the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center pale in comparison, the AP reported. However, that was a widespread concern at the time among officials, according to the news service.