US President Donald Trump compared the impact of American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites to the end of World War Two on Wednesday, arguing that the damage was severe even though available intelligence reports were inconclusive.
His comments followed reports by Reuters and other media outlets revealing that the US Defense Intelligence Agency had assessed that the strikes had set back Iran's nuclear program by just a few months, despite Trump and administration officials saying it had been obliterated.
"The intelligence was ... very inconclusive," Trump told reporters while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte ahead of a summit in The Hague.
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"The intelligence says, 'We don't know, it could have been very severe.' That's what the intelligence says. So I guess that's correct, but I think we can take the 'we don't know'. It was very severe. It was obliteration," Trump added. "I believe we destroyed everything. Look at the before-and-after pictures — flames were rising everywhere.”
Success of Iran strikes crucial For Trump
Trump has an uneasy relationship with the US intelligence community, and the success of the strikes is politically critical to him.
His right-leaning supporters had argued loudly beforehand that such military intervention was inconsistent with Trump's domestic-focused "Make America Great Again" agenda and his promise to avoid foreign entanglements.
Trump has countered by insisting that Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon - a line that an accurate, decisive attack would support.
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Trump said the US strikes were responsible for ending the war between Israel and Iran, which he described as a “wonderful victory for everyone, including Iran". He compared them to the United States' use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, which brought an end to World War Two in 1945.
"I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war. This ended the war," Trump said.
Trump argued that Iran's nuclear deal had been set back "basically decades, because I don't think they'll ever do it again" and he turned to top advisers to reinforce that message. “This was a devastating attack, and it knocked them for a loop,” he told reporters. “If we hadn’t taken action, they’d still be fighting.”
He said the Iranian government, knowing an attack was imminent, lacked time to evacuate nuclear material from the targeted sites. He stressed that if the regime attempted to rebuild, “we know where it is now, and we’ll have options.”
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“There are 10 million tons of debris on top of it. The tunnels have collapsed completely. It’s gone for years — very tough to rebuild,” Trump added. “They just went through hell. I think they’ve had it. The last thing they want to do is enrich [uranium] again.”
Asked if the United States would strike again if Iran rebuilt its nuclear enrichment programme, US President Donald Trump said: "Sure."
Trump also claimed that the Iran strikes contributed to progress on a breakthrough deal in Gaza, where more than 55,000 Palestinians, including 17,000 children, have reportedly died since October 2023.
“I think great progress is being made on Gaza,” he said. “Because of the attack that we made, I think we’re going to have some very good news. It showed a lot of power.”
Real estate executive Steve Witkoff, a Trump confidant, reportedly informed the president that the Gaza issue is “very close to being resolved.”
Hegseth and Rubio reinforce Trump's message
Trump, who arrived in the Netherlands late on Tuesday for NATO's annual summit, was sitting beside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who both also cast doubt on the reliability of the DIA assessment.
"When you actually look at the report - by the way, it was a top secret report - it was preliminary, it was low-confidence," Hegseth said. "This is a political motive here."
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He said the FBI was investigating a potential leak. Rubio suggested that those responsible for sharing the report had mischaracterized it, saying: "This is the game they play."
Rubio added, “Iran is now way behind where they were just seven days ago.”
