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Donald J. Trump questioned whether Syrian refugees are part of a “Trojan horse” plot, suggested buying land in Syria to create a “safe space” and said that in 2000 he could “feel” that terrorists were going to strike in the United States, as he rallied a large crowd of supporters in Tennessee on Monday evening.

Mr. Trump boasted to the crowd that in his book, “The America We Deserve,” published in 2000 as he was considering a presidential run that he ultimately decided against, he predicted that Osama bin Laden would engineer a terrorist strike within the United States.

“I predicted Osama bin Laden,” Mr. Trump declared in Knoxville, adding, “In my book, I predicted terrorism. Because I can feel it, like I feel a good location, O.K.?”

“In real estate — my father always used to tell people, ‘You know, he may be my son, but everything he touches turns to gold,'” Mr. Trump said. His father helped him begin his real estate career with a loan. “When my father said that, that was a great compliment because he was a tough cookie. He said, ‘He has an instinct for location.’ You have an instinct about things. I really believe I have an instinct for this kind of thing.”

Mr. Trump has been leading most national polls in the Republican presidential contest, but he is facing a potentially changed landscape. With the Iowa caucuses less than three months away, attention has shifted to national security in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris last week. While the Republican electorate so far has favored political outsiders like Mr. Trump and Ben Carson, the concerns over terrorism and the arrival of refugees from Syria into the United States could change things.

Mr. Trump also once again used an epithet to describe how swiftly and forcefully he would bomb the Islamic State strongholds, a line he first uttered in Iowa last week. It was met with slightly less gusto there.

Mr. Trump on Monday denounced the “animals” who perpetrated the attacks in France. He questioned why so many of the refugees fleeing into Europe are men, who aren’t “back fighting for their country.”

“Is this a Trojan horse?” he said. “We all know the story of the Trojan horse.”

Mr. Trump said he would like to “build a safe zone in Syria, build a big, beautiful safe zone, and you have whatever it is, so they can live.” He could get such a deal with his real estate background for a “swatch” of land, he said.

The crowd repeatedly cheered for Mr. Trump and waved signs bearing his slogan, “Make America Great Again.”