On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remarked that certain media coverage challenges the effectiveness of recent military actions against Iran, suggesting it stems from a lack of desire to see success under Trump’s leadership.
During a Pentagon press conference, Hegseth criticized a CNN report that raised doubts about the strike’s impact, citing an unnamed source regarding an “early US intelligence report assessment.”
“It seems there’s an inclination for you to hope he doesn’t succeed, which leads to questioning how effective these strikes really were. The Trump administration’s portrayal might not actually reflect the truth,” he commented.
Hegseth, having shared insights from both American and Israeli intelligence agencies, accused the media of “spinning” information and leaking it to create skepticism and manipulate the narrative.
A forthcoming press conference will feature Hegseth alongside Dan Kane, discussing matters related to Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to a translation from Radio France International, Grossi stated that Iran’s nuclear program has faced “significant damage.”
He added that the Fordow centrifuge facility is “no longer operational.”
Caine, during the conference, detailed that each of the six GBU-57 MOPs, designed for penetrating bunkers, struck their intended targets within the Fordow site precisely.
“These bombs have three primary destructive mechanisms: explosion, fragmentation, and overpressure. In this instance, the predominant effect involved overpressure and explosion, which ruptured tunnels and destroyed vital hardware,” he explained.
“Most of the damage we evaluated through extensive modeling indicated that the explosive layers interacted with impulses effectively. Just picture this multiplied six times,” he noted.
After the briefing, Trump expressed his appreciation for Hegseth and Kane.
“This was perhaps one of the most professional and validating news conferences I’ve witnessed. The media should reconsider their approach and apologize to our brave service members and everyone involved in this unjust inquiry!” he stated.
