The aides of all four living former U.S. presidents denied President Donald Trump’s claim that one of them privately confided they wished they had done what he did in striking Iran and taking out its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Multiple outlets reached out to aides of all four former living presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and all of them denied talking to Trump. NBC News reported that an aide for Bush said the former president and Trump “haven’t been in touch,” while an Obama aide said there had been “no recent conversations” between him and the president. An aide for Clinton said it wasn’t him and an unnamed source told the outlet that the predecessor Trump was referring to was not Biden. The Associated Press also corroborated the report, citing representatives for each of the former presidents, who said none of them had spoken with Trump recently. None of the four living former presidents has commented publicly on the U.S. military action against Iran.
None of the four living former presidents have publicly commented on the ongoing U.S. war with Iran. Earlier this month, the George W. Bush Presidential Center published an “initial observations” report on the conflict and said: “Our thoughts, prayers, and tremendous gratitude are with the brave men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who are facing continued Iranian assaults as they seek, through the ongoing operation, to advance American national security.” However, the report was penned by official. All of Obama’s recent social media posts have focused the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago in June. Biden has made no posts since the start of the conflict, and Clinton’s sole social media post this month has been about the Paralympics. Earlier this month, the three former Democrat presidents spoke at the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s memorial service, where Obama called out the Trump administration, saying: “Each day, we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency.” However, the president’s comments did not mention the Iran conflict.
