Donald Trump suggests he 'could have stopped 9/11', but no one listened to his warnings

Donald Trump has once again insisted that he predicted 9/11 and could have stopped the terrorist atrocity if anyone had heeded his warnings.

"Please remember I wrote about Osama bin Laden exactly one year ago, one year before he blew up the World Trade Center," Trump declared during a speech to hundreds of Navy personnel who gathered at Naval Station Norfolk for the Navy 250 Celebration on Sunday.

"I said, 'You've gotta watch Osama bin Laden.' And the fake news would never let me get away with that statement unless it was true. But, I said one year before to Pete Hegseth, I said one year before, in the book, I wrote - whatever the hell the title, I can't tell you, but I can tell you there's a page in there devoted to the fact that I saw somebody named Osama bin Laden, and I didn't like it, and 'You've gotta take care of him,'" Trump insisted.

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"They didn't do it," he continued. "A year later, he blew up the World Trade Center. So, I gotta take a little credit because nobody else is gonna give it to me. You know the old story - they don't give you credit, just take it yourself," he declared, reports the Mirror US.

Trump didn't actually predict the assault, contrary to his assertions. In early 2000, more than 18 months before the September 11, 2001, terrorist strikes, he wrote a book entitled, "The America We Deserve" that referenced bin Laden only briefly. The publication also appeared considerably earlier than he has suggested - it wasn't released just prior to the attack.

It did, however, identify bin Laden as a danger to American national security.

"I believe, 'THE SHOW MUST GO ON!'" Trump posted on Friday night on Truth Social. Before leaving the White House for the base on Sunday, he penned another post, which reads, "It will be a big day with the Navy. Leaving now. The United States has the greatest military, by far, in the World. This will be a show of Naval aptitude and strength. ENJOY WATCHING! It will be broadcast everywhere. President DJT."

Accompanying the president to the Navy base were First Lady Melania Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a former Navy rear admiral who served as a White House doctor during Trump's first term.

Upon his arrival, he immediately went to the USS George H. W. Bush and spoke with sailors, handing many of them challenge coins. The Trumps then watched a military demonstration while standing on the deck of the aircraft carrier.

Navy destroyers launched missiles and fired shells into the Atlantic Ocean as Navy SEALs descended from helicopters and fighter jets catapulted off.

The government shutdown began on Wednesday and has sparked a series of partisan blame games as military personnel work without pay, several thousand federal employees are furloughed and key infrastructure and energy projects in Democratic-run areas, including New York and Chicago, have been put on hold.

Trump accused the Democrats of enabling the shutdown in another post, claiming they were attempting "to destroy this wonderful celebration of the U.S. Navy's Birthday."

As the new budget year commenced on Wednesday, Senate Democrats blocked attempts to maintain government operations, pointing to the lapse in subsidies that could see health insurance costs soar for those covered under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Democratic MPs have also pushed to overturn Medicaid reductions that Trump enacted with his "big, beautiful bill" in July.

Prior to stepping aboard Marine One for his journey to Naval Station Norfolk, Trump once again held Democrats responsible for the mass redundancies anticipated during a government shutdown.

The president slammed Democrats as he prepared to board Marine One en route to the Navy 250 Celebration in Norfolk, Virginia, home to Naval Station Norfolk, where he was scheduled to witness a naval sea power demonstration before delivering remarks later that afternoon.

As he departed the White House on Sunday, a journalist questioned him about the redundancies. "Well, I call them Democrat layoffs. They're Democrat layoffs. They're causing it," Trump replied. "We're ready to go back."

He continued by championing what he characterised as a "record-setting economy" where "prices are way down. We're doing better than the country's ever done. And the Democrats hate seeing that. It's up to them. Anybody laid off, that's because of the Democrats," he declared.