GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump seems to subscribe to the theory that the more often you assert something, the more true it becomes. In various speeches and interviews, he has claimed that two years before the 9/11 attacks, he warned that Osama bin Laden was a threat — going to “do damage” to the United States — and even predicted the rise of terrorism.
This claim rests on a few sentences in Trump’s 2000 book, “The America We Deserve.” Just about every word uttered by Trump needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Did Trump really suggest that bin Laden was going to attack the United States — and did he predict terrorism?
Trump’s book was issued in January 2000, when he was considering a presidential run. The book does include a chapter on terrorism (more on that below), but there is only a single, offhand reference to bin Laden.
Bin Laden was not at the training camp in Afghanistan attacked by the United States, so he escaped injury — a point that Trump raises in his solitary reference to bin Laden.
Even if they were true, Trump would have been echoing predictions of experts, news organizations and even bin Laden himself, who in media interviews indicated that he planned to attack the United States.
Perhaps Trump deserves some credit for devoting a chapter to terrorism in a 2000 political book. But his prediction has not come true.
Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that he predicted in his 2000 book that bin Laden was going to attack the United States and that America needed to “take him out.” Moreover, his claims of predicting terrorism in the United States are similarly overblown. He earns Four Pinocchios.
“I predicted Osama bin Laden … was coming in to do damage. … In my book, I predicted terrorism."
in a speech in Knoxville, Tenn.
“I said we better be careful with Osama bin Laden. There’s a guy named Osama bin Laden. Nobody really knew who he was."
in an interview on the "Alex Jones Show"