All four living former U.S. presidents have denied President Donald Trump’s claim that he had spoken with at least one of them who privately expressed approval for the recent strikes on Iran.
Aides to former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden told multiple news outlets that none of the former presidents had spoken with Trump recently.
Yet Trump told reporters, at least three times Monday, that one of his predecessors had told him behind the scenes that they wished they could have done what he is doing.
“I’ve spoken to a certain president, who I like, actually,” Trump insisted. “A past president, a former president. He said, ‘I wish I did it.’ But they didn’t do it. I’m doing it.”
The president refused to name which former president he was speaking about, but a spokesperson for Clinton told The Independent that no such conversation had taken place between the two men. Aides to Bush, Obama and Biden issued similar denials to CNN, the Associated Press and NBC News.
An aide to Bush told NBC News that the two presidents “haven’t been in touch” for a while.
Another aide to Obama said, “No recent conversations” had taken place between Trump and Obama.
One person, familiar with the matter, told NBC News that Biden was not the president that Trump was referring to.
The Independent has asked the White House and representatives for Bush, Obama and Biden for comment.
The strange saga unfolded after Trump made comments seemingly to boost confidence in the ongoing U.S. military strikes in Iran that have sparked a broader conflict in the Middle East.
“For 47 years, no president was willing to do what I’m doing,” Trump claimed during remarks at the White House.
The president and members of his administration have sought to paint the ongoing war as a positive move by blaming media outlets for negatively reporting on it.
Later in the Oval Office Monday, Trump repeated his claim about a former president voicing support for his decisions while refusing to name who it could be. The president suggested he was talking about a Democrat who “happens to like me.”
“I don’t want to say. I don’t want to say… I don’t want to get him into trouble,” Trump said. “It’s somebody that happens to like me… that person is a smart person.”
He went on: “But that person said ‘I wish I did it,’ okay? But I don’t want to get into who. I don’t want to get him into trouble.”
Asked by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy if it would be possible to guess, Trump said: “Yeah, I think you probably know… maybe he’d even be proud?” The president then confirmed he was not referring to Bush.
It comes after an embarrassing day for the Trump administration as NATO allies repeatedly refuse to join the war, despite Trump’s pleading — after years of denouncing the alliance and threatening to violate its governing treaty.
Thirteen U.S. service members and reportedly more than a thousand Iranian civilians have been killed in the war, while the critical Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to global shipping, driving the price of oil skyward.
