President Donald Trump is pushing back hard after a classified intelligence assessment appeared to undermine his bold claims about the recent U.S. airstrikes on Iran.
The preliminary report, leaked to CNN and The New York Times, suggests that the attacks on three Iranian nuclear sites did not destroy the country’s nuclear program, but likely delayed it by only a few months. This directly contradicts Trump’s repeated boasts of “complete and total obliteration.”
Furious at the coverage, Trump lashed out on Truth Social late Tuesday night. “FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY,” he wrote. “THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!”
Trump also posted a video featuring stealth bombers taking off, soundtracked by a “bomb Iran” song, reinforcing his message that the operation was a complete success. The strikes, carried out Saturday night, targeted Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan—three of Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/114740882500667664
“I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,” Trump declared over the weekend. “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.”
But the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) sees it differently. According to the leaked assessment, the uranium stockpile remained intact, and most centrifuges were undamaged. The strikes reportedly sealed entrances to two of the sites but failed to damage the underground facilities themselves.
“So the assessment is that the U.S. set them back maybe a few months, tops,” a source familiar with the DIA findings told CNN. Iran, in response, declared that its nuclear program would “resume without interruption,” further challenging Trump’s triumphal narrative.
“When I see CNN, all night long, they’re trying to say, ‘Well, maybe it wasn’t really as demolished as we thought.’ It was demolished,” Trump insisted to reporters Tuesday. He demanded apologies to the pilots, saying, “These cable networks are real losers. You’re gutless losers.”
White House officials quickly moved to discredit the report. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell called it “a preliminary, low-confidence report” and confirmed an investigation is underway into the unauthorized leak.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed Trump’s anger, calling CNN’s story “fake news” while confirming the report’s existence. “This alleged ‘assessment’ is flat-out wrong,” she posted on X. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”
