President Donald Trump took direct aim at his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday amid questions about how close Iran is to obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The U.S. intelligence community has stood by its opinion that Iran has a large stockpile of enriched uranium but isn’t close to building a nuclear weapon, but the president disputes that.
A reporter asked the president what intelligence he had that Iran was building a weapon, because his intelligence community did not have evidence.
“Well then my intelligence community is wrong,” Trump said before asking the reporter who in his intelligence community had said that.
When Gabbard was named, Trump blasted back: “She’s wrong.”
It was the president’s most direct criticism of his own director of national intelligence after he also told reporters on Tuesday he did not care what Gabbard had said about Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Gabbard testified before Congress in March that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, but the president rejected that this week and said he believes they are close to having a weapon.
Earlier this week, the White House posted a video of Gabbard testifying on Iran, but it did not include her explicitly stating the U.S. intel community did not believe Iran was building a nuclear weapon.
The president was speaking to reporters Friday afternoon after arriving in Morristown, New Jersey, where he will be attending a fundraiser at his golf club Friday evening.
It was Trump’s first public comment since he announced in a statement that he would make a decision on the U.S. getting involved in Iran within two weeks, as the conflict with Israel escalates.
“We’re ready, willing, and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
Trump indicated the two-week deadline was his decided-upon timeframe to see if people “come to their senses” and signaled that two weeks was the maximum period of time he was giving Iran.
Trump said he was open to a ceasefire while potential negotiations take place but did not call for one directly.
“It’s very hard to stop,” Trump said. “Israel’s doing well in terms of war, and I think you would say that Iran is doing less well. It’s a little bit hard to get somebody to stop.”
The president would not talk about the possibility of sending in ground forces, but he did say it was the last thing he’d want to do.
The president said he’s “always a peacemaker” but argued it doesn’t mean you don’t need “toughness to make some peace.”
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