Trump dismisses top US intelligence assessment on Iran: What to know
Refueling tankers, second US Navy aircraft carrier head towards Middle East as Israel presses Washington to intervene in its war against Iran.
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he “did not care” that the nation’s top intelligence office had concluded earlier this year that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon, offering a stark dismissal of the office's assessment.
“I don’t care what she said,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while returning from the G7 summit in Canada, referring to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. “I think they were very close to having it,” he told CNN.
The office of the director of national intelligence concluded in its annual threats assessment report released in March that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
The report added, however, that “pressure has probably built” on Khamenei over the past year to do so — referring to a growing attitude among Iranian hard-liners following increased Israeli threats to the regime’s security and its proxy forces amid the Oct. 7 war.
