Overview

• Speaking at the U.S. Navy’s 250th anniversary event in Norfolk, President Trump said he wrote a year before 9/11 that the U.S. should “watch” Osama bin Laden and suggested he deserved credit.
• CNN’s fact check and prior reporting, along with Newsweek’s review, note Trump’s 2000 book mentions bin Laden only once in passing and does not urge action or predict he would carry out 9/11.
• Trump praised the Navy SEALs for killing bin Laden in 2011 and described his body being dumped from the USS Carl Vinson in stark terms.
• He referenced telling Pete Hegseth “one year before,” a claim reporters flagged as implausible given Hegseth was a college student when the book was published.
• The remarks drew fresh media scrutiny and social-media criticism, with no substantive correction from the White House at the time of reporting.