US Intel Says Iran Strikes Only Delayed Nuke Program; Trump Calls It ‘Fake News’

A classified US intelligence report has concluded that last weekend’s massive airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities failed to destroy them and only set back Tehran’s program by a few months, directly contradicting President Donald Trump’s triumphant public declarations. The President has vehemently dismissed the assessment as “fake news.”

The preliminary damage assessment, prepared by the Pentagon’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and first reported by The New York Times and CNN, found that the heavily fortified nuclear sites at Fordow and Natanz were not completely destroyed. This stands in stark contrast to President Trump’s address to the nation, where he claimed the mission was a “spectacular military success” that had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s enrichment facilities.

Furious with the leak, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to deny the report. “THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC,” he posted in all caps.

The White House also launched a blistering attack on the report’s credibility and source. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the assessment “flat-out wrong” and said it was leaked by a “low-level loser in the intelligence community” in a “clear attempt to demean President Trump.”

According to the DIA report, key equipment like uranium-enriching centrifuges could be restarted within months. It also suggests that Iran anticipated the attack and successfully moved its 400 kg stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium to secret locations. Satellite imagery reportedly showed significant truck activity at the Fordow site just before the strikes, supporting this conclusion.

This assessment paints a far more sober picture than the one presented by the administration. The US operation involved B-2 stealth bombers dropping powerful 30,000-pound GBU-57 ‘bunker buster’ bombs on Fordow and Natanz, while a submarine launched cruise missiles at a third site in Isfahan.

Concerns about the effectiveness of these bombs against the deeply buried Fordow facility, which is located under 300 feet of rock, had been raised by Pentagon officials earlier this year.

The military’s public statements have been more measured than the President’s. General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the damage as “extremely severe” but noted on Sunday that a final, comprehensive battle damage assessment was still pending