Early Reports Raise Doubts On Success Of U.S. Iran Strikes, Trump Insists Sites Were Obliterated

Donald Trump has described reports calling into question the success of U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend as fake news.

The president launched into a rant on Truth Social, insisting that Fordow, an underground nuclear enrichment plant, had been “obliterated” during Operation Midnight Hammer.

It comes as numerous reports have suggested that the strikes were not as successful as initially reported.

Several people familiar with an early intelligence assessment told CNN that the strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months and did not fully destroy it.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and U.S. Central Command produced the classified report, which is likely to evolve as more information is collected from Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan.

Sources told CNN that all three sites sustained extensive damage to their aboveground structures, but lower structures remained intact.

Severe damage was reported to power infrastructures and some aboveground facilities used to turn uranium into metal for bomb-making, CNN reports.

But according to the sources, the strikes did not fully eliminate the sites’ centrifuges and highly enriched uranium, with at least some uranium moved before the bombs dropped.

If the reports are accurate, it would be largely at odds with Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that the nuclear sites have been completely destroyed.

After the report was leaked, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “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 Times and CNN are getting slammed by the public!”

He also pinned a video to his profile of a Fox News interview with Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff condemning the leaks.

Witkoff said Isfahan – the only known conversion facility in Iran – was hit with a “30,000-pound bunker buster” and could not survive the hit.

With no conversion facility, Witkoff said Iran could not weaponize enriched uranium.

“We put 12 bunker buster bombs on Fordow,” he said. “There's no doubt that it breached the canopy...and there's no doubt that it was obliterated.

“So, the reporting out there that in some way suggests that we did not achieve the objective is just completely preposterous.”

The statements made by Witkoff have been echoed by Hegseth and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt since the report was leaked.

“Based on everything we have seen – and I've seen it all – our bombing campaign obliterated Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons,” Hegseth told CNN.

“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.”

Leavitt also repeated that the sites had been obliterated and described the person who leaked the classified report as a “low-level loser.”

“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.

“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.”

Questions on the success of the strikes come as a shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to be holding.

It initially faltered, with both sides accusing the other of violating the ceasefire announced by Trump, after the conflict began on June 3.

Israel launched Operation Rising Lion as it said Iran was too close to building a nuclear weapon, and Iran responded to Israeli strikes with their own missiles.

After the ceasefire initially broke down, Trump ranted to reporters at the White House as he readied to travel to The Hague for the NATO Summit.

“We have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing,” he said.

“They (Iran) violated it, but Israel violated it too,” Trump said.

“Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs the likes of which I’ve never seen before.”

“The biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel. When I say, ‘OK, now you have 12 hours,’ you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So, I’m not happy with them, I’m not happy with Iran either,” Trump added.

He also posted on Truth Social, strongly urging Israel to turn around planes headed for Iran.

“ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME, NOW,” he wrote.

After leaving the White House, Trump posted again to his Truth Social account and said the ceasefire remained in place.

“ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly ‘Plane Wave’ to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!”

Later, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to turn back the planes and he thought the ceasefire would hold for a long time.