President Trump suggested Thursday morning that CNN and the New York Times will ax the reporters who publicly revealed a preliminary, “low confidence” Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment that Saturday’s strikes on Iran likely only set the Tehran regime’s nuclear program back by several months.
Trump made the unverified claim on Truth Social, writing: “Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong.”
The president has vehemently disputed the conclusions of the DIA assessment and argued that Iran’s three facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz were “totally obliterated.”
“Lets [sic] see what happens?” Trump added, without citing a source for the scuttlebutt.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press briefing Thursday morning to hit back at reporting on the DIA assessment and unveil additional information.
CNN and the New York Times have stood by their reporting amid Trump’s criticism.
A network spokesperson appeared to deny Trump’s claim that the cable news giant was contemplating firing the reporter who broke the news on the preliminary DIA assessment.
“We stand 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,” a CNN spokesperson told The Post.
“CNN’s reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence,” the spokesperson added. “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.”
The Times did not immediately respond to Trump’s Thursday blast — but issued its own statement Wednesday standing by its report.
“President Trump called this ‘fake news.’ But he and his entire national security team subsequently confirmed that the Defense Intelligence Agency did in fact produce the preliminary assessment described in a report by The Times and others,” that statement read.
“So their statement was fake, not The Times’s reporting.”
Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine briefed reporters Thursday on the strikes against Iran and provided granular details about how the GBU-57 series MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) heavy-duty bunker buster bombs work. Caine stressed that unlike many bombs, MOPs don’t leave behind a massive crater, meaning satellite imagery of the aftermath of the strikes doesn’t necessarily paint a full picture of the damage. The president expressed satisfaction with the Hegseth and Kaine performance, calling it “[o]
ne 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!”
