The Latest: Hegseth praises US attack on Iran but offers few details on the strikes’ impact
Jun 26, 2025, 5:04 AM | Updated: 1:28 pm
President Donald Trump watches Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a press conference after the plenary session at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine held a Thursday morning news conference to respond to an early leaked intelligence report suggesting U.S. strikes against Iran likely put the country back mere months.
President Donald Trump has insisted the U.S. strikes delivered a “devastating” attack and that questioning his assessment of the strike was not only unpatriotic but also makes the pilots who dropped the bombs “very upset.”
Drawing reliable conclusions about the impact of the U.S. strikes is difficult only days after they took place.
Here’s the latest:
The Pentagon briefing included a detailed narrative about military tactics and hardware. However, it was short on information about how much the attack setback the Iranian nuclear program.
It’s unclear how quickly Iran could repair the damage or rebuild its capabilities elsewhere. There have also been questions about whether Iran was able to move its enriched uranium before the U.S. strikes.
Hegseth said he didn’t think that happened.
“I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be — moved or otherwise,” he said.
Military officials have said it will take time to fully understand the impact of U.S. strikes on Iran, and there was little in the way of new information about their damage.
But Hegseth said they decided to hold Thursday morning’s news conference because “there was a great deal of irresponsible reporting” based on a preliminary intelligence assessment. He criticized “biased leaks to biased publications.”
“If you want to know what’s going on at Fordo, you better go there and get a big shovel,” he said.
The top U.S. military official recounted in detail the Iranian missile attacks on a U.S. military base in Qatar.
The description from Gen. Dan Caine, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, appeared aimed at shifting the conversation from questions about political leadership and overall strategy to heroic narratives about individual U.S. service members.
He said roughly 44 American service members responsible for defending the entire base were present as rounds of Patriot missiles were launched. Caine says Qatar joined in the successful American defense of what he called the largest single Patriot engagement in U.S. military history.
The defense secretary minimized the importance of a preliminary intelligence assessment that concluded U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities had damaged but not permanently destroyed them.
Hegseth scolded the media for “breathlessly” focusing on an assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency even though the DIA is part of the Defense Department.
He said the assessment was preliminary and had not been coordinated with other agencies in the intelligence community. He said other intelligence assessments have been more bullish in their assessments on damage of the sites.
The president seems to be monitoring the Pentagon news conference, posting about it on social media. “Watch it!” he wrote.
He also baselessly suggested that media outlets that reported on the intelligence assessment “will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories.”
Trump has been fixated on coverage of the U.S. strikes, which could determine how American voters view his decision to get involved in the latest war in the Middle East.
The news conference began with Hegseth, a former Fox News host, criticizing the media for “hunting for scandals all the time.”
He accused reporters of failing to acknowledge “historic moments” like improved military recruiting and increased spending on European defense by U.S. allies on the continent.
He then shifted to attacking the “fake news” for reporting on a preliminary assessment about the impact of recent U.S. strikes on Iran.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine assembled this morning to push the president’s claims that the recent U.S. attack “obliterated” Iranian nuclear facilities.
A preliminary assessment, produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, said American bombs and missiles caused a setback of only a few months. Trump has rejected this conclusion, lashing out at the news media for reporting on it and marshaling his administration to support his version of events.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the comments late Wednesday on a flight back from the NATO summit, where he met with Trump.
“Our ultimate goal is to host a leaders-level meeting in our country and to build the peace that we long for,” Erdogan said, according to a transcript of his comments made available on Thursday.
He also quoted Trump as expressing willingness to participate in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey, if Russian President Vladimir Putin also agrees to attend.
Erdogan quoted Trump as saying: “If Russian President Vladimir Putin comes to Istanbul or Ankara for a solution, I will also come to Istanbul or Ankara.”
Russian and Ukrainian delegations, meeting in Istanbul in late May and in June, agreed to swap thousands of dead and seriously wounded troops but made no progress toward ending the 3-year-old war.
Despite suggestions of a possible leaders’ summit, Putin did not attend the talks, sending a low-level delegation instead.
