Donald Trump’s MAGA allies lost it on Tuesday after media outlets reported on classified info gathered by the president’s own intelligence community.
Details of a classified report leaked to CNN and The New York Times contradicted Trump’s boasts about the U.S. strikes on Iran, which he claims brought Iran’s nuclear program to its knees. The findings, produced by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm and first reported by CNN, say that the bombings on three Iranian nuclear sites did not destroy the country’s program and likely only set it back by months.
Trump’s allies were mad—but not because of the findings at odds with what the public has been told since the weekend strikes. Instead, they took aim at CNN for reporting on them.
“Why do you think CNN would do this?” Fox News’ Jesse Watters asked Sen. Ted Cruz on Jesse Watters Primetime Tuesday night.
The Texas Republican called the network the “left wing of the Democratic Party” and accused it of siding with “America’s enemies, instead of standing and supporting our nation.”
“The president and his team executed it to perfection, and it was devastatingly effective in terms of degrading Iran’s capability,” Cruz said. “It shouldn’t surprise anyone that CNN is throwing rocks from the sidelines.”
Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul who serves as Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham it’s “completely preposterous” to suggest the mission did not achieve its objective.
“It goes without saying that leaking that type of information, whatever the information, whatever side it comes out on, is outrageous,” he said. “It’s treasonous, so it ought to be investigated.”
GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin, also appearing on Fox News, called for an investigation of the leak as well.
“You have fake news like CNN running with the story, and it’s absolutely false” he said.
“They were salivating all day,” Ingraham chimed in.
Trump himself was apparently livid about the assessment. He raged at CNN and The New York Times in late-night Truth Social posts, writing: “FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY.”
“THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!” he added.
He also shared a clip of Witkoff’s comments on Fox News and pinned it.
Trump administration officials have been parroting his “obliteration” line since Sunday. Sources who had been briefed on the Defense Intelligence Agency’s report, however, told CNN that Iran’s centrifuges and stockpile of enriched uranium were not destroyed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged the report is real but called it “flat-out wrong.”
“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” she said.
