Donald Trump tried to rewrite history again Monday, this time at the expense of Hillary Clinton.
During a Middle East summit in Egypt to mark the Gaza ceasefire deal, Trump spoke about his relationship with the country’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom he first met in 2016.
“We knew each other from the beginning,” Trump said while sitting beside Sisi. “The first time we met was in a hotel. I was going to meet him, and then Hillary Clinton was following me, you remember? Hillary Clinton!”
Sisi smiled and nodded his head in return.
Trump continued: “And he liked me so much, he never even got to see Hillary. He saw her for about two seconds, but he didn’t really want to waste a lot of time. He knew what was going to happen.”
But Trump’s version of events wasn’t accurate.
On Sept. 19, 2016, Sisi met with both presidential candidates at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel while he was in the city for the United Nations General Assembly. Clinton spoke with the Egyptian leader first, according to Reuters, and she did so for “more than an hour,” Politico reported.
A summary of Clinton’s meeting from the Egyptian embassy said that “the historic and strategic relations between Egypt and the United States was highlighted, and both parties agreed on the need to set the foundation for a new impetus in the relations for the benefit of both the Egyptian and American peoples, and enhancing stability and security in the Middle East.”
The same source described Sisi’s later encounter with Trump: “A full range of bilateral and regional issues were discussed, and the historic and strategic relations between Egypt and the United States were emphasized, including the need to revitalize it for the benefit of both the Egyptian and American peoples.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Trump on Monday praised the leadership of his Egyptian counterpart, whose rule is considered authoritarian by human rights groups.
“If he has crime, he puts it out very quickly,” Trump said. “Some people think that’s not nice. But I think that’s great, because people don’t want to be mugged and smashed and be stupid people.”
The former commander-in-chief of Egypt’s armed forces, Sisi led the 2013 coup against democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi. Under Sisi’s command as defense minister, Egyptian security forces carried out the the Rabaa massacre and other mass killings of civilian protesters. His 2014 election was marred by repression of his political opponents.
At a 2019 G-7 summit, Trump called Sisi “my favorite dictator.”
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