(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Thursday offered enthusiastic praise of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s briefing at the Pentagon, where he provided more information about the U.S. strikes on Iran and defended the president.
“One of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen! The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!” Trump wrote on his conservative social media platform, where earlier he had encouraged followers to tune in.
Hegseth’s news conference came amid a full-court press from Trump’s top officials dispute a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment that said the bombings may have only set it back by a few months.
“You want to call it destroyed. You want to call it defeated. You want to call it obliterated. Choose your word. This was an historically successful attack and we should celebrate as Americans,” a defiant Hegseth said from the podium as he railed against the news media coverage of the events and the leaked initial intelligence assessment.
“This is preliminary but leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn’t successful,” he said.
“Classified information is leaked or peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad,” he added.
The day prior, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard posted statements saying their intelligence supported Trump’s description of the damage inflicted by the U.S. military operation.
“CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” Ratcliffe wrote in a statement.
Gabbard wrote on X: “New intelligence confirms what @POTUS has stated numerous times: Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed. If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordow, Esfahan) entirely, which would likely take years to do.”
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, who on Sunday had said it was “way too early” to make complete damage assessments, at Thursday’s news conference declined to give a detailed assessment.
“By design, we don’t grade our own homework. The intelligence community does,” Caine said.
“But here’s what we know following the attacks and the strikes on Fordo,” Caine continued. “First, that the weapons were built, tested and loaded properly. Two, the weapons were released on speed and on parameters. Three, the weapons all guided to their intended targets and to their intended aim points. Four, the weapons functioned as designed, meaning they exploded.”
“We know this through other means, intelligence means that we have that we were visibly able to see them,” Caine added. “And we know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function and the pilots stated quote this was the brightest explosion that I’ve ever seen. It literally looked like daylight.'”
Caine was asked if he felt any political pressure on how to describe the strikes or their impact. “No, I have not, and no, I would not,” Caine responded.
Hegseth momentarily interrupted the questioning.
“The chairman here, who’s not involved in politics, he doesn’t do politics. That’s my lane — to understand and translate and talk about those types of things. So, I can use the word ‘obliterated,'” Hegseth said, the term Trump has used repeatedly.
Still, several questions remain not fully answered, particularly how far exactly the strikes set back Iran’s nuclear capabilities and whether Iran was able to move uranium away from the Fordo site before the bombings.
Hegseth and Caine were asked about the uranium during their 45-minute news conference. Neither provided a clear answer.
Hegseth first attacked the news reporter who asked the question, before saying: “We’re looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where.”
President Trump, who was watching the news conference, took to his social media account to weigh in on speculation that Iran may have moved uranium because of satellite images showing trucks lined up at Fordo in the days leading up to the attack.
“The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!” Trump wrote on his social media site.
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