Overview

• Speaking at the Navy’s 250th anniversary in Norfolk, President Trump said he wrote about Osama bin Laden “exactly one year” before 9/11 and declared he would “take a little credit.”
• He did not name the book during the speech but clearly alluded to The America We Deserve, which was published in January 2000.
• Reporters cite prior fact-checks finding the book mentioned bin Laden once and neither urged his killing nor predicted a major attack by him.
• Trump said officials ignored his warning and suggested outcomes would have been different, echoing similar self-crediting claims he made in 2019 after al‑Baghdadi’s death.
• He framed the remarks while praising Navy SEALs for the 2011 raid that killed bin Laden, tying the claim to the event’s military focus.