President Donald Trump said on June 20 that his director of national intelligence’s assessment in March that Iran had yet to decide on building a nuclear weapon was wrong.
Trump made the remarks to reporters on Friday while standing next to Air Force One at the Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey.
The president was asked about the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that it had no evidence that Iran was building a nuclear warhead before Israel’s strikes on its military and nuclear sites last week.
“Well, then my intelligence community is wrong,” Trump said. “Who in the intelligence community said that?”
When he was told that it was his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who gave those remarks to lawmakers in March, Trump replied, “She was wrong.”
After Trump’s comments, Gabbard took to social media to share a clip of her March testimony to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and accused the media of twisting her words.
“The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division,” Gabbard wrote. “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 said in her testimony at the time that the intelligence community had determined that Iran was not currently building a nuclear weapon. However, as part of that assessment, she said there were alarming signals that warranted continuous monitoring for any change.
The signs Gabbard mentioned included indications that Iranian decision-makers who wanted the country to have nuclear arms were becoming increasingly emboldened in their pursuit, and that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles were at “unprecedented” levels for a state without nuclear weapons.
In remarks to reporters, Trump reiterated that he believes, based on the quantity of enriched uranium that Iran currently possesses, that the regime could develop a nuclear bomb “within a matter of months.”
“We can’t let that happen,” Trump said, adding that he believes his current military intelligence is more accurate than what then-President George W. Bush used as a pretext to invade Iraq in 2003, which Trump opposed.
He was asked what makes the current situation different than the one 22 years ago, and Trump said: “Well, there were no weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq]. I never thought there were.”
“There was a nuclear age [in 2003], but nothing like it is today. And it looked like I’m right about the material that they’ve gathered already,” he said.
The United Nations’ nuclear watch group said early last month that Iran had more than 900 pounds of 60 percent enriched uranium at the time. To make a nuclear bomb, 90 percent enriched uranium is required.
The group said that if Iran chooses, it could enrich enough stockpiled uranium to make a bomb in a matter of days, but building and testing a warhead could take much longer.
In response to comments from Iran’s foreign minister earlier on Friday, who said if the United States is serious about negotiations, it must first call Israel to order a stop to the airstrikes, Trump said it’s difficult to make that request now.