Twice in Monday remarks, President Donald Trump said he had “spoken to a certain president” and described what he said was a private confession-like message: that the former president regretted not attacking Iran “the way Trump has been doing for more than two weeks.” The Associated Press reported that Trump made the comments after opening a meeting of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center at the White House, where he also said that Iran had been a threat to the United States for decades and that he was the only president willing to act.
In the remarks, Trump said the former president told him: “I wish I did it, I wish I did,” referring to attacking Iran, according to the AP account of his extended comments. Trump declined to name which former president he meant when reporters pressed him. When asked directly who the predecessor was, Trump told reporters, “I can’t tell you that,” adding that he did not want to “embarrass him,” and he said it would be “very bad for his career.”
The AP reported that representatives for each of the four living former presidents said none has been in touch with Trump recently. It said Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden all denied recent contact, with the individuals speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the AP reported that none of the former presidents said he had spoken with Trump recently. Trump and the four past presidents were last together in the same space for Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, the AP said—well before the Iran war period described in Trump’s remarks.
Trump also repeated in the AP account that for decades “every president knew” about the threat he said Iran posed and that he was acting while predecessors had not. In his characterization of his own actions, Trump said, “Look, for 47 years, no president was willing to do what I’m doing,” and he said “they should have done it a long time ago.” He added that none of the presidents “wanted to do it,” while saying he was doing it.
In later questions in the Oval Office, the AP reported, a reporter asked whether the former president was George W. Bush, and Trump said “No.” Another reporter asked whether it was Bill Clinton, and Trump replied that he did not want to say, then added that the person “happens to like me,” described the predecessor as “a smart person,” and said the predecessor had told him, “I wish I did it.” Trump again declined to identify the person and said he did not want to “get them into trouble.”
The AP reported Trump has been critical of President Joe Biden and former President Obama in past remarks, and it said he previously accused Obama of negotiating a “horrible deal” with Iran involving nuclear weapons before Trump withdrew from that agreement during his first term. The AP also reported Trump made sympathetic comments about Clinton, saying it “bothers” him that Clinton had been called to give a deposition to Congress about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; Trump said in a Feb. 4 interview with NBC News, “I liked Bill Clinton. I still like Bill Clinton,” and he added that he liked Clinton’s “behavior.”
Later Monday, after the Iran-related remarks, Trump also announced that Vice President JD Vance would lead a task force created to eliminate fraud in federal benefit programs, the AP said—moving from the discussion about an unidentified former president to a separate policy announcement as questions continued about who Trump claimed he had spoken with.