On Wednesday, President Donald Trump‘s White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on social media: “Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Have Been Obliterated — and Suggestions Otherwise are Fake News.”
Countering a narrative engendered by a leaked U.S intelligence assessment that appeared to indicate President Trump exaggerated the impact of U.S. strikes on Iran, Leavitt started a thread with a quote from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission:
“The devastating US strike on Fordo destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years. The achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.”
Dear @PressSec: I have read the classified assessment by our own United States Defense Intelligence Agency.
I highly recommend you read the DIA classified assessment before you say or post anything else on this topic. https://t.co/eJreUc6fHB
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 25, 2025
U.S. Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA), a USAF veteran who believes military strikes ordered by President Trump on Iran needed congressional authorization, responded to Leavitt:
“Dear @PressSec: I have read the classified assessment by our own United States Defense Intelligence Agency. I highly recommend you read the DIA classified assessment before you say or post anything else on this topic.”
Note: Leavitt emphasized the characterization of the leaked DIA document as “a preliminary, low confidence report” which the Trump administration continues to refine “as additional intelligence becomes available.”
She added: “We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the unauthorized disclosure of classified information.”
[NOTE: At the NATO summit in Netherlands, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said: “We are doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now. CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success.”]
In an official statement regarding Trump’s use of the U.S. military in bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities, Lieu said he wants “the Administration to address many unanswered questions, such as if the strikes achieved their intended objectives, how the Administration intends to protect Americans and our service members from potential future attacks, and what the Administration’s plan is going forward.”