President Donald Trump tore into CNN, The New York Times, and other corporate outlets Thursday following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s press conference that confirmed U.S. strikes “obliterated” key Iranian nuclear sites.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump praised Hegseth’s performance as “one of the greatest, most professional, and most confirming news conferences I have ever seen.” He demanded that the media organizations which ran stories based on “low-confidence” leaked intelligence should “fire everyone involved.”
Thank you, Mr. President. pic.twitter.com/oxHBnXLEB4
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) June 26, 2025
Before the briefing, Trump hinted the press might soon have to clean house: “Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong. Let’s see what happens?”
During the Pentagon briefing, Hegseth rebuked journalists for relying on preliminary intel to suggest the strikes only set Iran back by months. He said outlets were so determined to damage Trump that they downplayed U.S. pilots’ success and demoralized the troops who executed the mission.
Trump echoed that point, clarifying new imagery from the bombed sites. He said the vehicles spotted near shaft openings were “concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts,” not crews removing nuclear material. “Nothing was taken out of the facility,” Trump wrote, noting that extracting centrifuges under bombardment would be “too dangerous, very heavy, and hard to move.”
The president closed with another broadside: “FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN & THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!”
Hegseth’s briefing and Trump’s posts come as updated CIA and DIA assessments confirm the strikes destroyed critical infrastructure at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan—upending earlier press narratives and underscoring the administration’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back by years.