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By Gabe Whisnant and Sonam Sheth
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The White House issued a scathing statement after CNN, The New York Times and other media outlets reported that an early assessment by U.S. intelligence said military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend failed to destroy key elements of Iran's nuclear program.
The assessment also found that the strikes only set Iran's nuclear program back by a few months, contradicting President Donald Trump's claim that the strikes "obliterated" the nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, an early Israeli intelligence assessment determined that the U.S.'s strikes set Iran's nuclear capabilities back by "several years," according to The Times of Israel. The reported assessment came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that "we sent Iran's nuclear program down the drain."
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Why It Matters
Trump's decision to authorize the U.S. strikes came after Israel launched a series of missile strikes on Iran that decimated the country's military chain of command and nuclear infrastructure. Israel's strikes threw a wrench into Iran and the United States' diplomatic efforts toward reaching a new nuclear deal.
On Saturday, the U.S. entered the conflict by dropping 14 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs, known as "bunker busters," and more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at three Iranian nuclear sites. The Trump administration said the strikes destroyed Iran's nuclear infrastructure, but the full extent of the damage is not known.
What To Know
"This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as 'top secret' but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in response to the outlet's reporting.
"The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program," Leavitt added. "Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration."
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The president also tore into the media's reporting, writing in an all-caps Truth Social post on Tuesday night: "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. THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!"
Leavitt, Trump and the MAGA base have been bitterly critical of the way mainstream media outlets have reported on intelligence community assessments in unfavorable stories. At times, that skepticism has been well-founded.
A four-part Columbia Journalism Review investigation of coverage of the Russia probe during Trump's first term found "serious flaws" in the media's reporting and quoted the legendary Washington Post editor Bob Woodward as saying readers and viewers had been "cheated."
A CNN spokesperson said in a statement after its story was published: "CNN stands by our thorough reporting on an early intelligence assessment of the recent strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, which has since been confirmed by other news organizations. The White House has acknowledged the existence of the assessment, and their statement is included in our story."
The intelligence assessment CNN and other outlets relied on came from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's main intelligence arm. The DIA's findings are said to be based on U.S. Central Command's battle damage assessment of the U.S.'s strikes against Iran's three main nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan over the weekend.
The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) declined to comment to the Associated Press on the DIA's assessment. The ODNI oversees the nation's 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is also tasked with analyzing foreign military forces and adversarial capabilities.
After announcing the strikes, Trump wrote on social media that the U.S. had "completely and totally obliterated" Iran's nuclear program.
He reiterated his comments on Tuesday, telling reporters: "I think it's been completely demolished...Those pilots hit their targets. Those targets were obliterated, and the pilots should be given credit."
What People Are Saying
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told CNN: "Based on everything we have seen — and I've seen it all — our bombing campaign obliterated Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons. Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission."
Retired Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson told CNN on Tuesday: "The assessment is what we expected but what scares me about the whole incident is the politicization of our national intelligence. It's so sad to see Secretary Hegseth and Karoline Leavitt and others try to align our national security apparatus and intelligence apparatus with what the president said earlier. If that's not true, we need to know it. If our enemy is 10 feet tall and bullet proof, we need to know this."
He continued: "You're still trying to penetrate 300 feet of hardened concrete, and these bombs have never been used before. While significant damage was no doubt achieved, total obliteration is totally laughable."
Vice Adm. Bradley Cooper, the deputy commander of CENTCOM and Trump's nominee to lead the agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that Iran still retains "considerable" capabilities, adding: "At the tactical level, I think they've been degraded. I think the degree to which that degradation has taken place, particularly in the last 12 days, is best discussed in a classified forum."
When asked directly whether Iran still poses a threat to U.S. troops in the region, Cooper responded: "They possess considerable tactical capability, one element of which we saw yesterday, which we thwarted in defense of Al Udeid. We've got to be in a three-point stance, ready to go, every single day."
What Happens Next
Trump announced on Monday that Iran and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire, but both countries accused each other of violating the agreement within hours of it taking effect. Meanwhile, Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian both claimed victory in the 12-day conflict.
Netanyahu described it as a "historic victory" for Israel in a televised address, saying that the outcome would "stand for generations."
Pezeshkian told Iranian state media that his country had also gained a "historic victory" in the fight, which he said was "imposed" on Iran by Israel. He added that the ceasefire deal is a triumph for Iran's national sovereignty and praised the "heroic resistance" of the Iranian people.
Update 6/24/25, 3:55 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 6/24/25, 5:09 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and remarks.
Update 6/24/25, 5:21 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and remarks.
Update 6/24/25, 5:42 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and remarks.
Update 6/24/25 6:14 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and remarks.
Update 6/24/25 9:38 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and remarks.
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