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President Donald Trump said Wednesday that U.S. missile strikes on Iranian nuclear sites caused significant damage, even as he acknowledged that intelligence on the impact continues.
Speaking at the NATO summit in The Hague, Trump rejected comparisons to the U.S. atomic bombings in Japan during World War II, but then made one himself.
“I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima,” Trump said. “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. If we didn’t take that out, they would have been they’d be fighting right now.”
His comments came a day after reports surfaced that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had concluded the airstrikes had set Iran’s nuclear program back by only a few months. That assessment contradicted earlier claims by administration officials that the strikes had effectively dismantled Iran’s weapons program.
“The intelligence was very inconclusive,” Trump told reporters. “The intelligence says we don’t know. It could’ve been very severe. That’s what the intelligence suggests.”
Still, Trump insisted the effect was long-term.
“In my opinion, it was basically decades, because I don’t think they’ll ever do it again,” he said of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Seated alongside Trump were Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who both questioned the leaked assessment.
“Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly,” Hegseth stated.
Rubio stated that the administration is launching an investigation into the source of the DIA leak and claimed that the report had been mischaracterized by the press.
Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff also addressed rumors that the U.S. bombings of Iranian nuclear sites did not complete their objectives.
“We put 12 bunker buster bombs on Fordow. There’s no doubt that it breached the canopy…and there’s no doubt that it was OBLITERATED. So, the reporting out there that in some way suggests that we did not achieve the objective is just completely preposterous!” Witkoff told Laura Ingraham during a Fox News interview that Trump posted to his Truth Social account.