President Donald Trump is teasing what he calls an "interesting and irrefutable" news conference set for Thursday morning at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump has repeatedly attacked CNN and The New York Times for reporting on a top-secret Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that said U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities did not "obliterate" Iran's nuclear program, as Trump bragged.
The DIA's preliminary report said the strikes only set back Iran's nuclear program by a few months, rather than destroying it completely. The report found that the bombings significantly damaged above-ground structures at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, but didn't destroy underground facilities vital to Iran's nuclear program.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the outlets that obtained the report as the White House vowed to hunt down the leaker. Meanwhile, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that his agency's intelligence "contradicts illegally sourced public reporting" regarding the strikes. His carefully worded statement said the CIA can confirm the program was "severely damaged" and Iran's nuclear facilities would take years to rebuild.
And on Wednesday afternoon, Trump doubled down on the success of the strikes, teasing that Hegseth will hold a "major news conference" along with military representatives at 8 a.m. Thursday. The presser, he wrote, is "in order to fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots."
"These Patriots were very upset! After 36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory, they landed, they knew the Success was LEGENDARY, and then, two days later, they started reading Fake News by CNN and The Failing New York Times. They felt terribly!" wrote Trump. "Fortunately for them and, as usual, solely for the purpose of demeaning PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, the Fake News (Times and CNN) lied and totally misrepresented the Facts, none of which they had (because it was too soon, there were no Facts out there yet!)."
Trump concluded that the news conference will "prove both interesting and irrefutable. Enjoy!"
