Trump says intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard is “fallacious” about Iran’s nuclear program
Washington — President Trump on Friday mentioned his director of nationwide intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was “fallacious” when she testified in March that Iran wasn’t constructing a nuclear weapon, marking the second time in per week the president has dismissed the evaluation of the intelligence director he chosen.
The White Home this week mentioned Iran has every little thing it must construct a nuclear weapon and desires solely the inexperienced gentle from Iran’s supreme chief, with the flexibility to prepared a nuclear weapon inside weeks. Mr. Trump mentioned Iran was “very near having” a nuclear weapon.
In March, Gabbard testified on Capitol Hill that the U.S. “continues to evaluate that Iran is just not constructing a nuclear weapon and Supreme Chief Khamenei has not approved the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.” Gabbard later insisted she and the president are on the identical web page.
Mr. Trump dismissed his intelligence group’s public evaluation of Iran on Friday, and Gabbard particularly, because the White Home says the president will determine whether or not to affix Israel in its strikes on Iran inside two weeks.
When the president arrived in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Friday, a reporter requested him: “What intelligence do you might have that Iran is constructing a nuclear weapon? Your intelligence group had mentioned they don’t have any proof that they’re at this level.”
“Nicely then, my intelligence group is fallacious,” Mr. Trump responded. “Who within the intelligence group mentioned that?”
“Your director of nationwide intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard,” the reporter answered.
“She’s fallacious,” Mr. Trump mentioned, shifting on to the subsequent query.
The president beforehand dismissed Gabbard’s testimony earlier this week, on his method again from a G7 summit in Canada. A reporter famous that Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence group mentioned Iran wasn’t constructing a nuclear weapon.
“I do not care what she mentioned,” the president instructed reporters aboard Air Power One. “I believe they have been very near having one.”
Vice President JD Vance wrote on X on Tuesday that “Tulsi’s testimony was in March, and so much has modified since then.”
The president has been briefed on the dangers and the advantages of bombing Fordo, Iran’s most safe nuclear website, a number of sources instructed CBS Information this week. His mindset is that disabling it’s essential due to the danger of weapons being produced in a comparatively quick time frame.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt instructed reporters Thursday that the president will decide on whether or not to affix Israel’s strikes inside two weeks and permit the diplomatic path to play out.
“Primarily based on the very fact that there’s a substantial likelihood of negotiations which will or might not happen with Iran within the close to future, I’ll make my determination whether or not or to not go inside the subsequent two weeks,” the president mentioned in a press release learn by Leavitt on the White Home press briefing. The Iranian overseas minister met with a gaggle of European diplomats in Geneva on Friday.
Requested Friday if a strike could possibly be potential earlier than the two-week deadline is up, the president mentioned: “I am giving them a time frame. We’ll see what that time frame is. I am giving them a time frame. However two weeks can be the utmost.”
