President Trump said a former president admitted to regretting not taking action against Iran earlier, but none has fessed up to making the comment.
“Look, for 47 years, no president was willing to do what I’m doing, and they should have done it a long time ago. It would have been a lot easier,” Mr. Trump told reporters before a Trump Kennedy Center board meeting Monday. “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, a former president,“ he continued. “He said, ‘I wish I did it, I wish I did.’ But they didn’t do it. I’m doing it.”
He later specified the former president is “somebody that happens to like me.”
This list has been narrowed down to the only four presidents still alive — Joseph R. Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — all of whom ordered attacks on Iraq, not Iran, during their time in office.
Aides who served under the former presidents denied any conversation that indicated their former boss wished they had bombed Iran.
When asked Monday by a reporter to clarify which president he was referring to, Mr. Trump said it was not Mr. Bush.
An aide for Mr. Bush told NBC News that “they haven’t been in touch.”
When Mr. Trump was pushed on whether the unnamed president was Mr. Clinton, he said, “I don’t want to say.”
“I don’t want to say because a member of a party … they have Trump derangement syndrome, but it’s somebody that happens to like me, and I like that person, who’s a smart person, but that person said, ‘I wish I did it.’ OK, but I don’t want to get into who. I don’t want to get him into trouble,” Mr. Trump said.
His answer suggests that the former president is a Democrat, but considering Mr. Trump’s hefty criticism of Mr. Biden, this rules out his predecessor.
The remaining two, Mr. Obama and Mr. Clinton, denied making such comments.
An aide to Mr. Obama told NBC News that “no recent conversations” have taken place between him and Mr. Trump, and Mr. Clinton’s aide said the current president wasn’t referring to the 42nd.
Mr. Trump suggested Monday that he would potentially unveil which former president he spoke to.
“You know, it’s interesting. And maybe he’d be proud,” he said. “And I could even ask him that: ‘Would you like me to reveal your name?’”
