Trump suggests CNN, NY Times may fire reporters who wrote about ‘low confidence’ Iran strike assessment

President Trump suggested that CNN and the New York Times may fire the reporters who wrote about a preliminary, “low confidence” Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment that the strikes on Iran likely only set the regime’s nuclear program back by several months.

Trump made the unverified claim on Truth Social Thursday morning.

“Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong,” he wrote.

The president has vehemently disputed the leaked preliminary intelligence assessment, arguing that the strikes “totally obliterated” the three Iranian facilities.

It is unclear what evidence he has that those outlets were considering firing their reporters.

“Lets see what happens?” Trump added.

It came as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press briefing Thursday morning to hit back at reporting on the DIA assessment, which was leaked to several lefty outlets in the aftermath of the strikes.

CNN and the New York Times have stood by their reporting amid Trump’s criticism.

Trump has suggested the reports – which signaled Tehran could salvage its nuclear program within months — were an attack against the pilots who flew the bombing mission over the weekend.

“I believe it was total obliteration. I believe they didn’t have a chance to get anything out, because we acted very fast,” he said at the NATO summit on Wednesday.

Taking aim at the press, Trump later added: “You should be praising those people instead of trying to find out by getting me, by trying to go and get me. You’re hurting those people.”

The United Nations nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that the theocratic regime’s nuclear program is starkyl degraded. 

“The Iranian nuclear program has been set back significantly,” International Atomic Energy Agency director Rafael Grossi told Fox News’s Martha MacCallum in an interview. 

“It is clear that there is one Iran before June 13, nuclear Iran, and one now, and it’s night and day,” added the Argentine diplomat.

Iran also publicly admitted Wednesday that its nuclear sites were “badly damaged” by the American bunker-busting bombs. Tehran’s Foreign Ministry did not elaborate on the full extent of the damage.

Meanwhile, CNN’s Jake Tapper defended his network’s reporting Wednesday, saying: “Trump and his administration are going after shooting the messengers in an increasingly ugly way.”

“The key questions for the American people in the world are simply about the degree of success of the operation, and the current state of Iran’s nuclear weapons program and what the intelligence — not the politicians — what the intelligence reveals,” Tapper said, adding that the scrutiny of Trump’s strikes was not directed at service members.