President Donald J. Trump said that one of his predecessors told him that he wished that he had the stones to strike Iran while in office, but none of them have acknowledged that the conversation took place.
While speaking during a Monday meeting of the Trump-Kennedy Center board, the president boasted of his bold action against the Islamic Republic, which has been pounded for two weeks, pointing out that Iran has been a menace for nearly half a century, which has vexed every U.S. leader since the ayatollahs took over in 1979.
TRUMP: “For 47 years, no president was willing to do what I’m doing [in Iran], and they should have done it a long time ago; it would have been a lot easier. There’s no president who wanted to do it, and yet every president knew… but they didn’t do it. I’m doing it.” pic.twitter.com/fwfTU25Dor
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) March 16, 2026
“Look, for 47 years, no president was willing to do what I’m doing,” Trump 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,” he 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 in the Oval Office, Trump was asked by Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy about his remarks and whether he was referring to former President George W. Bush, the only Republican among the four living former leaders, to which the current president responded with a “no” answer.
Doocy: You said twice today, that you talked to another former president about the Iran strikes. Was it George W Bush?
Trump: No
Doocy: Was it Bill Clinton?
Trump: I don’t want to say pic.twitter.com/I74Dw5eLf0
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 16, 2026
When Doocy followed up by asking if it was Bill Clinton, Trump was evasive, telling the reporter, “I don’t want to say.”
“I don’t want to say because a member of a party, 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,” the president said.
“You know, it’s interesting. And maybe he’d be proud,” Trump added. “And I could even ask him that: ‘Would you like me to reveal your name?’”
But no aides to the four former presidents confirmed that the conversation took place.
President Trump said Monday that he spoke to a former president about bombing Iran.
• An aide for George W. Bush says that “they haven’t been in touch.”
• An aide to Bill Clinton says that whoever Trump was referring to was not Clinton.
• An Obama aide says “no recent…
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 17, 2026
NBC News reached out to a Bush aide who said “they haven’t been in touch,” and a Clinton aide told the outlet that whoever Trump was referring to, it wasn’t Slick Willie.
An aide to Barack Obama told NBC News that “no recent conversations” had taken place between the former POTUS and Trump, also citing an unnamed “source familiar with the matter” saying that it wasn’t disgraced former President Joe Biden.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Samantha Waldenberg also contacted aides to “all four living former presidents,” with none confirming Trump’s claim.
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