Every Former President Denies Talking to Trump About Iran After He Claimed He Spoke With One About the Bombings

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

On Monday, President Donald Trump claimed that he spoke to a former president about the U.S. military strikes in Iran. Shortly thereafter, representatives for every single living president denied such a conversation had taken place.

The strikes against Iran, jointly conducted by the U.S. and Israel, have been controversial. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in one of the strikes and another hit an elementary school, killing at least 175 people, mostly young girls who were students there. Trump has denied responsibility but media reports have shown it was a Tomahawk missile that hit the school, a weapon that only the U.S. has, not Iran or Israel. Oil and gas prices spiked after Iran began launching its own strikes against area nations and closed the Strait of Hormuz.

During a meeting of the Kennedy Center board on Monday, Trump touted the military operations in Iran.

“Look, for 47 years, no president was willing to do what I’m doing,” he said. “And they should have done it a long time ago. It would have been a lot easier. There’s no president that wanted to do it. And yet every president knew.”

“I’ve spoken to a certain president, who I like, actually — a past president — former president,” Trump added. “He said, ‘I wish I did it. I wish I did.’ But they didn’t do it. I’m doing it.”

Later on Monday, when pressed by Fox News’ Peter Doocy, Trump expressly said “no” when asked if he had spoken to former President George W. Bush, said “I don’t want to say” when asked about former President Bill Clinton, and a similar dodge when asked about former President Barack Obama.

Trump has not previously claimed that he conducts seances or other purported methods to communicate with the dead, and has long said that he abstains from alcohol or drugs that could have hallucinogenic effects, so claiming to have spoken with a “former” president this month would be limited to the above names, plus former President Joe Biden.

To fact-check Trump’s claim, CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Samantha Waldenberg reached out to aides for “all four living former presidents.”

“A spokesman for Clinton told CNN that no recent conversations have taken place between Clinton and Trump — about Iran or anything else,” Zeleny and Waldenberg wrote.

“Aides to Bush, Obama, and Biden offered similar sentiments on Monday, saying there is no record of any communications with Trump,” they added.

This “rais[es] questions about whether such a conversation actually took place,” Waldenberg wrote in a tweet.

A report by NBC News confirmed that the former presidents were denying they had spoken with Trump.

From the NBC News report:

An aide for George W. Bush told NBC News that “they haven’t been in touch,” while an aide to Bill Clinton told NBC News that whoever Trump was referring to was not Clinton.

An Obama aide said “no recent conversations” have taken place between Barack Obama and Trump, and a source familiar with the matter said the former president Trump was referring to was not Joe Biden.

This article has been updated with additional information.

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