Continuing his tirade against Pakistan, President Donald Trump on Monday said the US has paid Islamabad billions of dollars but it never told the Americans that the Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was living in that country.

In an interview to a television news channel on Sunday, Trump had defended his administration's decision to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan for not doing enough to curb terrorism and criticised Islamabad for offering a hideout to Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad.

"We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars and they never told us he was living there. Fools!..," Trump said in a tweet, a day after he told Fox News in an interview that Laden should have been captured long before.

"We no longer pay Pakistan the $Billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another," Trump said.

"They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That's ENDING!" he said.

....We no longer pay Pakistan the $Billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ENDING!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2018

Beginning with a tweet on January 1, the US President has announced stop giving military and security assistance to Pakistan.

Trump believes that the Pakistan has been a reluctant partner of the US in the war against terrorism and that it has misused the US money.

Trump insisted that Bin laden should have been captured long time back before he was killed in a daring raid in Abbottabad.

"Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Centre. President Clinton famously missed his shot," Trump said.

First Published:Nov 20, 2018 8:04 AM IST