Aides for all four living former presidents — Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden — denied they spoke to or praised Donald Trump for his war in Iran, which Trump claimed on Monday at least twice.
Trump first made the claim early on Monday at a lunch for the Kennedy Center board members.
“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.”
Later in the day he repeated the claim in the Oval Office during a press conference.
Trump also refused to name the president he spoke to.
“I can’t tell you that. I don’t want to embarrass him. It would be very bad for his career, even though he’s got no career.”
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.