President Trump continues to defend the success of the U.S. attack on three of Iran’s key nuclear sites, criticizing news reports that say otherwise.
As Mr. Trump left the NATO summit at The Hague to head back to Washington Wednesday, he took to Truth Social to reiterate that the result of the bombings on Iran’s nuclear facilities was “total obliteration.”
“We just caught the Failing New York Times, working with Fake News CNN, cheating again! They tried to demean the great work our B-2 pilots did, and they were in doing so. These reports are just BAD AND SICK PEOPLE,” he wrote. “You would think they would be proud of the great success we had, instead of trying to always make our Country look bad. TOTAL OBLITERATION!”
On Tuesday, CNN was the first to report that an early U.S. intelligence assessment found with a low level of confidence that the Saturday strikes on Iran’s facilities did not completely destroy them as Mr. Trump had previously said.
The assessment came from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the intelligence arm of the Pentagon. Other outlets, including The New York Times and Associated Press, have since reported the same.
In a second post, Mr. Trump said Israel found that the “nuclear sites were OBLITERATED!”
“Thank you to our great B-2 pilots, and all others involved,” he wrote.
The White House shared a statement with reporters earlier Thursday that said it was from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission.
“The devastating U.S. strike on Fordo destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years,” the statement said. “This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.”
In a third social media post, Mr. Trump hit specifically on CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, who was one of the reporters on the outlet’s story about the intelligence assessment report, calling for her to be fired.
“I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out ‘like a dog,’” he said.
He referenced a story she previously wrote for Politico in 2020 about the situation regarding former President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and a laptop that contained documents and information about his foreign business dealings. In the report, she wrote that more than 50 former senior intelligence officials said the information on the laptop bore the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation operation. But the laptop was later confirmed to be Hunter Biden’s and the information on it correct.
“She lied on the Laptop from Hell Story, and now she lied on the Nuclear Sites Story, attempting to destroy our Patriot Pilots by making them look bad when, in fact, they did a GREAT job and hit ‘pay dirt’ — TOTAL OBLITERATION!” Mr. Trump wrote. “She should not be allowed to work at Fake News CNN. It’s people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great Network. Her slant was so obviously negative, besides, she doesn’t have what it takes to be an on camera correspondent, not even close. FIRE NATASHA!”
In a statement, CNN said it stands “100% behind Natasha Bertrand’s journalism and specifically her and her colleagues’ reporting of the early intelligence assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
“We have extensively covered President Trump’s own deep skepticism about it,” the statement said. “However, we do not believe it is reasonable to criticize CNN reporters for accurately reporting the existence of the assessment and accurately characterizing its findings, which are in the public interest.”
During his post-NATO press conference, Mr. Trump said the pilots involved in the nuclear site attack were “maligned and treated very bad, demeaned, by fake news CNN.”
“There’s something wrong with them,” Mr. Trump said of NBC, CNN and The New York Times. “But you know what? You should be praising those people.”
Later Wednesday, Mr. Trump announced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will hold a press conference early Thursday “to fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots.”
“These Patriots were very upset! After 36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory, they landed, they knew the Success was LEGENDARY, and then two days later, they started reading Fake News by CNN and The Failing New York Times. They felt terribly!” the president said on social media.
“Fortunately for them and, as usual, solely for the purpose of demeaning PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, the Fake News (Times and CNN) lied and totally misrepresented the Facts, none of which they had (becuase it was too soon, there were no Facts out there yet!),” he said. “The News Conference will prove both interesting and irrefutable.”
