President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard says the media is misrepresenting her assessment of Iran’s nuclear program.
Gabbard in a Friday post following a barb from Trump that she was “wrong” about Iran, said that the media misrepresented her intelligence assessment.
“The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division,” Gabbard said, along with video of her March testimony. “America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly. President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree.”
Gabbard’s assessment has been seized on by many who oppose any military action to take out Iran’s nuclear program, who point to her statement that the intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.” That statement was followed up, however, by Gabbard telling the committee that Iran was enriching uranium at a level unprecedented for any nation that was not pursuing nuclear weapons.
The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division. America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the… pic.twitter.com/mYxjpJY2ud
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) June 20, 2025
The post came just hours after Trump insisted on Friday that his intelligence shows that Iran is building a nuclear weapon when asked about Gabbard’s assessment.
In response to a reporter’s contention that Trump’s “intelligence community has said they have no evidence” that Iran is “building a nuclear weapon,” Trump replied asking where the reporter was getting his information.
“Well, then my intelligence community is wrong,” Trump replied bluntly. “Who in the intelligence community said that?”
“Your Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard,” the reporter answered.
“She’s wrong,” Trump said succinctly.
Trump had been asked about Gabbard’s assessment before, and similarly dismissed it.
On Tuesday, speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.”
.@POTUS on Iran: "I think they were very close to having" a nuclear weapon. pic.twitter.com/BXOIrJUobk
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 17, 2025
Gabbard’s team has said the intelligence official is in lockstep with Trump on Iran, and pushed back against reports that she was out of the loop on questions of whether or not to strike its nuclear program.
Below is Gabbard’s full testimony on Iran, which also includes her stating that Iran has powerful weapons capable of striking U.S. targets:
Iran continues to seek expansion of its influence in the Middle East, despite the degradation to its proxies and defenses during the Gaza conflict. Iran has developed and maintains ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and UAVs, including systems capable of striking U.S. targets and allies in the region. Tehran has shown a willingness to use these weapons, including during a 2020 attack on U.S. forces in Iraq and in attacks against Israel in April and October 2024. Iran’s cyber operations and capabilities also present a serious threat to U.S. networks and data.
The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003. The IC continues to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program. In the past year, we have seen an erosion of a decades-long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision-making apparatus. Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.
Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for a U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming, and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorist and militant actors, which it refers to as its “Axis of Resistance.” Although weakened, this collection of actors still presents a wide range of threats, including to Israel’s population, U.S. forces deployed in Iraq and Syria, and to U.S. and international military and commercial shipping and transit.
On Friday, a reporter asked, “Mr. President, the Iranian Foreign Minister this afternoon said if the U.S. is serious about negotiations, then you would call up Israel and request that they stop their airstrikes. Will you make that request?”
“Well, I think it’s very hard to make that request right now,” Trump answered. “If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody’s losing.”
Asked about the two-week ultimatum he gave Iran to surrender, Trump said it was “just a time to see whether or not people will come to their senses.”
Trump recalled how he opposed the war in Iraq because he did not believe they had weapons of mass destruction, then turned to Iran, saying, “It looked like I’m right about the material that they’ve gathered already; it’s a tremendous amount of material. And I think in a matter of weeks or certainly within a matter of months, they’re going to be able to have a nuclear weapon. We can’t let that happen.”