President Donald Trump continued to insist that there was “total obliteration” after his strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, despite media saying the opposite.
“We hear it was obliteration. It was a virtual obliteration,” Trump said while in the Netherlands for NATO meetings.
Trump added moments later, “I believe it was total obliteration. I believe they didn’t have a chance to get anything out, because we acted fast.”
However, that’s not what multiple news outlets have reported.
CNN and the New York Times cited intelligence reports saying the strikes set Iran’s nuclear program back only a few months. Trump and members of his administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have pushed back furiously against those claims.
“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!”
Vance also shared a Defense Department official’s assessment that the sites were “obliterated.”
However, they appeared to concede that the domestic intelligence report was authentic, with Hegseth saying there will be an investigation into the leak that sent information to the news media.
“We’re doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now,” Hegseth said. “This information is for internal purposes, battle damage assessments, and CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success.”
He added that the report was “preliminary” and made with “low confidence.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also dismissed the report and blamed the leaker’s “agenda.”
“I hate commenting on these stories, because often the first story is wrong and the person putting it out there has an agenda,” Rubio said in an interview with Politico.
He also insisted that the strikes pushed Iran “much further away” from building a nuclear weapon.
TRUMP BLAMES BIDEN FOR IRANIAN ‘SUPER CELLS’ ALLOWED INTO THE US
The White House pointed to a statement made by the Israel Atomic Energy Commission.
“The devastating attack on Fordo destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable,” the statement said.
