A White House social media account has posted a highly misleading video of Tulsi Gabbard in which she appears to bolster the argument that Iran is getting dangerously close to developing a nuclear bomb.
In reality, she had just told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the U.S. intel community did not believe Iran was building a nuclear weapon.
The edited clip begins just after she had made that explicitly clear. She went on to say that there were nonetheless some indications of a shift in rhetoric.
The clip, shared by @RapidResponse47, begins with Gabbard saying, “In the past year, we’ve seen an erosion of a decades-long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision-making apparatus.”
.@DNIGabbard in March: “Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.” pic.twitter.com/UZ2RN8YiV8
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 18, 2025
She continues: “Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.”
The decision to use a clip of Gabbard to make the case that Tehran was close to developing a nuclear weapon came after Trump lost his cool with his director of national intelligence for criticizing the case for war.
In her March testimony, Gabbard had severely downplayed the threat.
“The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,” she said. “The IC is closely monitoring if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program.”
Donald Trump has publicly dismissed Gabbard’s influence on his decision-making regarding any role the U.S. would have in aiding Israel against Iran.
“I don’t care what she said,” he responded when a reporter asked him about her testimony earlier this year. “I think they were very close to having [a nuclear weapon].”
Gabbard’s video a few weeks ago claiming that the “political elite and warmongers” were “carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers” didn’t sit well with him, either.
“I don’t think he dislikes Tulsi as a person… But certainly the video made him not super hot on her… and he doesn’t like it when people are off message,” a senior administration official told Politico.
As his party’s hawks fought a very public battle with non-interventionists, Trump said on Wednesday that he’s still open to negotiating with Iran. At the same time, he said he was considering military action.
“I like to make a final decision one second before it’s due, you know, because things change,” he said about any order bringing U.S. forces into the region.
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