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By Anna Commander
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After President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on Monday during a press briefing about the ongoing war in Iran, a number of users on social media said that he made remarks claiming to have been the one to "take out" al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden, who was killed in 2011 while President Barack Obama was in the White House.
The Claim
Numerous users on X referenced Trump's remarks in which the president discussed the U.S. mission to rescue airmen who were shot down over Iran, saying that he claimed to be the one who killed bin Laden.
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Democratic candidate for Congress in Massachusetts Dan Koh on X said, "Didn't realize Operation Neptune Spear was run out of...Palm Beach."
Frequent Trump critic Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the Parkland school shooting in 2018, also said on X, "Um, did he just claim that he took out Osama Bin Laden? Unlike him, I do not have dementia, and can say with certainty that @BarackObama did that."
Ron Filipkowski, a vocal Trump critic and the editor-in-chief at Meidas Touch, said on X, "Trump claims he was the one who took out Osama bin Laden." Replying to that post, professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College, and staff writer at The Atlantic, Tom Nichols said, "And we just all pretend it's normal and this is not a sign of serious, alarming cognitive issues"
There were other similar reactions posted to social media suggesting that Trump took credit for killing bin Laden.
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email on Monday for comment.
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The Facts
The president was holding a press conference to discuss U.S. operations in the Iran war.
While discussing the situation, Trump brought up the previous killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, saying in part, "I had killed Qasem Soleimani, who was an evil genius, and the reason I did it, I heard he was going to knock out five of our military bases. And had he lived, I believe we would have been fighting perhaps a different Iran right now, because he's never, he's never been replaced, you know."
Trump continued, "And I also, I did one other, but this one was not picked up, Osama bin Laden. If you read my book, I said you got to take him out, one year before the World Trade Center came down, so I wish you'd read the book. But as a president, to be a good president, I believe you have to have good instincts, and a lot of this is instinct."
The book the president referenced is The America We Deserve, published in January 2000.
Trump reportedly only mentions bin Laden once in the book. The passage said: “Instead of one looming crisis hanging over us, we face a bewildering series of smaller crises, flash points, standoffs, and hot spots. We’re not playing the chess game to end all chess games anymore. We’re playing tournament chess—one master against many rivals.
“One day we’re all assured that Iraq is under control, the U.N. inspectors have done their work, everything’s fine, not to worry. The next day the bombing begins. One day we’re told that a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Osama bin-Laden is public enemy number one, and U.S. jetfighters lay waste to his camp in Afghanistan. He escapes back under some rock, and a few news cycles later it’s on to a new enemy and new crisis.”
This is not the first time the president has referenced flagging bin Laden as a threat that needed to be dealt with in his book.
In October 2025, Trump said in part, "And please remember I wrote about Osama bin Laden exactly one year ago, one year before he blew up the World Trade Center. And I said, ‘You got to watch Osama bin Laden.' ”
The Ruling
The ruling on this claim is false.
Trump did not directly take credit for taking out bin Laden in the 2011 operation in Pakistan. He referenced his book that he wrote in 2000 and said that he had said the al-Qaida leader should be taken out "one year before the World Trade Center came down".
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