WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he wished one of his predecessors had been the one to detonate the bombs in Iran.
It appears that he has not spoken to any of the four former presidents.
An aide to George W. Bush told NBC News that “he has not been in touch,” while an aide to Bill Clinton told NBC News that the person Trump was referring to was not Clinton.
Obama aides said there had been “no recent conversations” between Barack Obama and Trump, and a source familiar with the matter said the former president was not referring to Joe Biden.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the denials Monday night.
Earlier in the day, Trump claimed he had spoken to the former president twice about Iran.
“I talked to a certain president — one I really like. The previous president, the former president, he said: ‘I wish I could do that. I wish I could.’ But they didn’t do it. I’m doing it. yes?” Trump said at a luncheon for Kennedy Center board members.
Later in the day, Trump repeated the claim in the Oval Office: “I talked to one of the former presidents that I really like.”
“I’ll actually talk to a few,” Trump said. “And he said, ‘I wish I could do what you did.’
Asked by a reporter to clarify which president he was talking to, Trump did not specify. He said it wasn’t Bush and then said, “I don’t want to say,” when asked if it was Clinton.
“I don’t want to say because a member of the party, a member of the party, he has Trump derangement syndrome, but it’s somebody who likes me, and I like that guy, who’s a smart guy, but that guy said, I want to do it. OK, but I don’t want to contact anybody. I don’t want to get them in trouble,” Trump said.
“You know, it’s interesting. And maybe he’s proud,” Trump said of the former president. “And I can ask him: ‘Do you want me to reveal your name?’
