Overview

• Speaking at the U.S. Navy’s 250th anniversary at Naval Station Norfolk, President Trump said he wrote about Osama bin Laden “exactly one year” before 9/11 and said he should get “a little credit.”
• He referenced an unspecified book, widely understood to be The America We Deserve, and invoked a conversation with Pete Hegseth while struggling to recall the title.
• CNN and other fact-checks report the 2000 book includes a single brief mention of bin Laden, does not urge killing him or predict 9/11, and was published more than 18 months before the attacks.
• Trump also praised Navy SEALs for the 2011 Abbottabad raid that killed bin Laden and described his burial at sea from the USS Carl Vinson.
• The remarks echo similar claims he made in 2019, and coverage again notes archival records contradict his timeline and suggestion that his warning could have prevented the attacks.