Trump Pushes Back On Pentagon Intel, Insists Iran Nuclear Sites ‘Destroyed’

There are two apt sayings for this current situation facing the White House in the wake of the Trump-ordered bombings against Iran’s nuclear facilities. First, what’s worse in war-time decision-making than doing the wrong thing? Doing it incompletely. Second, it is always easy to begin a war, but very difficult to stop one.

And so here President Trump and his top officials find themselves, defending the ‘limited’ strikes and proclaiming the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program and enrichment capability in the face of a skeptical media. The escalation dialectic – which the mainstream media is so good at – begins…

The heat is on an the NATO summit in The Hague, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters, “Of course we’re doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now because this information is for internal purposes, battle damage assessments.”

Referencing yesterday’s leaked DIA report which strongly suggests Iran’s nuclear program is “mostly intact” – he continued, “And CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success.”

And Trump himself said, “They really don’t know.” And in response to the contrary intelligence, “I think Israel is gonna be telling us very soon because [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] is going to have people Involved in that whole situation.”

“This was an unbelievable hit by genius pilots and genius people in the military, and they’re not being given credit for it because we have scum that’s in this room. And not all of you are… CNN is scum. MSDNC is scum. The New York Times is scum. They’re bad people. They’re sick,” Trump said. “And what they’ve done is they’re trying to make this unbelievable victory into something less.”

And here’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, somewhat hedging:

“(Iran’s nuclear) program today has been set behind significantly from where it was a week ago. It is in far worse shape today than it was a week ago because of US actions and because some of the actions Israelis took,” Rubio told Politico.

“So, the bottom line is they are much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action,” he said, adding that “very significant, substantial damage” was done to a “variety of different components.”

Iran has meanwhile admitted that nuclear sites are ‘badly damaged’ – perhaps in hopes of giving Trump what he wants in terms of PR to ensure the bombing will stop and ceasefire will hold; however, the Iranians have also vowed to pursue their nuclear energy program without interruption and that it remains a matter of national sovereignty. 

To review of the leaked DIA assessment, one official had told CNN: “So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops.” The White House acknowledged the existence of the report marked top secret but said they disagreed with it.

Trump, Rubio, and Hegseth are in Europe proclaiming the ‘overwhelming success’ of the strikes:

Pete Hegseth: CNN and others are trying to spin this to make the President look bad when this was an overwhelming success.

Trump: This is the New York Times. I call it the failing New York Times. It’s going to hell. And CNN which very few people are watching.
pic.twitter.com/A6sQCwi0zP

— Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) June 25, 2025

So this appears yet another case of the White House disagreeing with its own intelligence community (IC) – in an ongoing awkward situation which has Iraq war vibes. However, without doubt the IC is still working on an overall consensus, based likely on several different intel threads, and across agencies.

One obvious danger from the perspective of Western decision-makers (and Israel): if Iran was not intent on getting a bomb before, they likely are now - given their very existence is under threat.

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More geopolitical developments and headlines via Newsquawk:

• US Secretary of State Rubio says US President Trump will buck Europe’s pleas to ratchet up sanctions on Russia, adding that the US still wants room to negotiate a peace deal, according to Politico.
• US President Trump says NATO will be very strong, when asked about article 5, says “we are with them all of the way”. Thinks the Iran-Israel ceasefire is good. Last thing Iran want to do is enrich (uranium), they want to recover. Thinks US will have a relationship with Iran. Asked if the US would strike Iran again if the nuclear programme is rebuilt, says “sure” Progress is being made on Gaza.
• “Al-Akhbar reported this morning from its sources that Houthi attacks in Yemen against Israel are expected to intensify and escalate in the coming days in response to the Israeli escalation in Gaza”, via Kan’s Kais on X.
• Iranian Parliament approves bill to suspend cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog, according to Nournews
• “There have been no [US] sanctions lifted on Iran,” said Fox Business’ Lawrence, in reference to President Trump’s post suggesting China could continue to buy oil from Iran. A senior White House official added: “The President was simply calling attention to the fact that because of his decisive actions to obliterate Iran’s nuclear facilities and broker a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz will not be impacted, which would have been devastating for China. The President continues to call on China and all countries to import our state-of-the-art oil rather than import Iranian oil in violation of US sanctions.”
• Iranian Foreign Minister Araqchi said the nuclear programme continues, according to Al Arabiya.
• White House Middle East envoy Witkoff said the US and Israel had achieved their goals in Iran, according to Fox News. He described talks with Iran as encouraging and stated it was time to sit with Iran and make a comprehensive deal.
• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards denied there was any drone attack in the northwestern city of Tabriz following reports air defences were activated in the area, according to Iranian news sites.
• Israel’s representative to the UN Security Council stated that Iran had been involved in producing a nuclear bomb, according to Sky News Arabia.
• Israel’s representative to the United Nations said that diplomatic talks with Iran will take place soon, according to Al Arabiya.
• US is set to open its embassy in Jerusalem on June 25th, following the ceasefire between Israel and Iran and the lifting of all restrictions by Israel’s Home Front Command, according to a statement.
• Iran executed three men for allegedly working for Israel’s spy agency Mossad, according to the Mizan News Agency.