Overview
- Speaking at a Kennedy Center board meeting on Monday, President Trump urged countries that rely on Gulf oil to send warships to help the U.S. secure the Strait of Hormuz.
- He asserted that he predicted Osama bin Laden would “knock out” the World Trade Center and said he had “wrote it in a book” about a year before the attacks.
- He also claimed he foresaw Iran using the Strait of Hormuz as a weapon and suggested some allies have been hesitant to commit forces.
- Media reporting noted the waterway has been effectively shut after Iranian counterstrikes made transit too dangerous, increasing pressure for a broader patrol effort.
- CNN’s Daniel Dale has repeatedly refuted Trump’s 9/11 claim, finding The America We Deserve mentions bin Laden only in passing and contains no prediction identifying him as the likely attacker, while coverage reiterates that al-Qaeda’s 2001 assaults killed 2,977 people.