In a new televised interview that’s reignited fierce debate over his long history of self-proclaimed “predictions,” former President **Donald Trump claimed he had personally warned the U.S. government about Osama bin Laden years before the September 11 attacks** — but that, in his words, “no one listened.” The comments came during an appearance on Fox News, where Trump revisited a claim he first made during his 2016 campaign, insisting he had “called it years in advance.”
“I said Bin Laden’s going to do something terrible. I wrote it down, I said it out loud — nobody cared,” Trump told host Sean Hannity, as reported by Fox News. “They laughed at me. I wasn’t in office, but I saw it coming. It was obvious if you were paying attention.” Trump referred to a passage from his 2000 book, *The America We Deserve*, in which he mentioned the al-Qaeda leader by name and warned that the United States faced grave danger from international terrorism.
Trump says he warned about Osama bin Laden before 9/11: “I said it would happen. Nobody listened.” — @FoxNews
In that book, published over a year before the 9/11 attacks, Trump wrote that the U.S. needed to take terrorism more seriously and that figures like Bin Laden could “wreak havoc” on America if left unchecked. As The New York Times pointed out, Trump’s recent remarks appear to be part of a broader effort to reframe his public image as a “visionary leader” who saw threats before they emerged — a claim that historians and national security experts have questioned.
“It wasn’t an intelligence warning,” counterterrorism analyst Peter Bergen told CNN. “It was a vague, generalized comment, not an actionable prediction. Many people, including intelligence agencies, were tracking Bin Laden at the time.” Still, Trump’s comments have resonated with his supporters, who view his claim as further proof of his “instinctive genius” and mistrust of the Washington establishment.
According to The Washington Post, Trump went further in his latest retelling, saying that if he had been president in the late 1990s, “9/11 would never have happened.” He said he would have “taken Bin Laden out long before the towers fell” and accused both the Clinton and Bush administrations of “sleepwalking through the warnings.” The remark has drawn sharp criticism from former intelligence officials who say Trump is oversimplifying one of the most complex intelligence failures in U.S. history.
“If I had been president, 9/11 would not have happened,” Trump claims, reviving his pre-attack Bin Laden warning narrative. — @nytimes
Social media exploded following the interview, with hashtags like #TrumpBinLaden and #9/11Claim trending within hours. Supporters praised Trump for “speaking the truth history ignored,” while critics accused him of rewriting the past to glorify himself. As Rolling Stone noted, this isn’t the first time Trump has claimed prescience about major historical events — he’s previously boasted that he “predicted” the COVID-19 pandemic and even the war in Ukraine.
“He’s not lying in the sense that he mentioned Bin Laden,” wrote journalist Dan Rather on X. “But to say he ‘warned the government’ is stretching the truth beyond recognition.” The resurfaced excerpt from Trump’s 2000 book, archived by The National Archives, indeed references Bin Laden by name, warning that “we should be taking him out before he takes us out.” The comment, though striking in hindsight, was one of several similar warnings from analysts and journalists during that era — none of which were treated as formal intelligence alerts.
“Trump mentioned Bin Laden in 2000 — but so did dozens of other writers and experts,” historians point out amid renewed claims. — @Reuters
Despite fact-checkers clarifying the context, Trump repeated his claim several times throughout the interview, saying, “They laughed at me. But I said Bin Laden would do something huge, something catastrophic. I knew it. And they ignored it — just like they ignored me before the China virus.” He then compared his foresight to what he called “the same instincts” that guided his presidency, arguing that his critics “always underestimate” him.
As BBC News reported, Trump’s comments come as he ramps up his campaign rhetoric for 2026, often blending nostalgia, grievance, and self-affirmation. His repeated reference to 9/11 — one of the nation’s most painful collective memories — has divided even some of his loyalists, with a few calling it “a risky play for attention.”
Still, Trump’s words have struck a chord with segments of his base who see him as a truth-teller shunned by the establishment. At a recent rally in Pennsylvania, supporters chanted “He warned them!” after he repeated the claim onstage. As NBC News observed, this latest narrative fits neatly into Trump’s larger political mythology — one where he alone sees threats before they happen, and where disbelief only proves his point.
“He warned us, they ignored him” chants erupt at Trump rally as his Bin Laden claim dominates headlines. — @NBCNews
Whether Trump’s claim holds historical weight or not, one thing is clear — he has once again managed to recast a national tragedy into a stage for his own narrative of foresight and defiance. And as the echoes of 9/11 still haunt the American psyche, Trump’s assertion that “they should have listened” ensures that, once again, the conversation revolves around him.
