The White House has angrily lashed out at an intelligence report suggesting the U.S. did not obliterate Iran’s nuclear program, claiming the report was leaked by a “low level loser” to undermine Donald Trump.
After the president declared that the U.S. had completely demolished Iran’s nuclear facilities, an early intelligence assessment leaked to media outlets on Tuesday suggested that the strikes only set the regime’s enrichment program back by six months but did not destroy its core components.
The preliminary analysis was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, and reportedly found that the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings.
However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt vehemently rejected the report and publicly accused CNN, which first revealed the report, of “fake news”.
“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,” she said in a statement.
“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.
“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”
🚨FAKE NEWS CNN STRIKES AGAIN: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.The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean…
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) June 24, 2025
The comments came two days after the U.S. controversially joined Israel to attack Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, the core of Iranian nuclear infrastructure, in what Trump touted as a perfectly executed mission.
Known as “Operation Midnight Hammer”, the strikes were carried out using deception and decoys to target the three facilities in a highly classified, middle-of-the-night attack on Saturday.
It also included the use of 30,000-pound “bunker bombs,” marking America’s first ever operational use of this weapon.
But while Trump and Hegseth both declared the attack had killed any chance of Iran producing a nuclear weapon, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, who oversaw the operation, did not use this term.
In a far more measured response on Sunday, Caine said that an initial assessment indicated “severe damage and destruction,” but it would take time for the final battle damage to be known.
Iran’s atomic energy agency also said on Tuesday that its nuclear program “will resume without interruption.”
“We are ready to restart enrichment; our program will not stop,” stated the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, according to reports from state media.
Trump, however, doubled down on Tuesday morning and lashed out at “the fake news media” for suggesting the weekend strike was anything but a resounding success.
“I think it’s been completely demolished,” he told reporters when asked about Iran’s bombed nuclear facilities. “I think the reason we’re here is because those pilots, those B-2 pilots, did an unbelievable job.”
The leaked preliminary assessment is likely to be raised by Democrats at a classified briefing on Thursday.
It also reportedly suggests that much of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strikes. Some of that material has been moved to secret nuclear sites maintained by Iran.
However, the five page assessment was only an initial report, insiders caution, and more reports will follow as additional information is collected.
In a separate statement on X, Leavitt hit out personally at the CNN reporter who broke the story, claiming she was the first person who wrote “the very first FAKE NEWS story claiming the Hunter Biden laptop was disinformation.”
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