BEDMINSTER, USA — President Donald Trump on Friday, June 20, 2025, publicly rejected an assessment by his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, that Iran is not actively building a nuclear weapon, marking the second time in a week the president has contradicted his intelligence chief on a matter of national security.
Speaking to reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump said, “Well then, my intelligence community is wrong,” when asked about Gabbard’s March testimony that the U.S. had no evidence Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons.
When informed that the comment came from Gabbard herself, Trump responded bluntly: “She’s wrong,” and moved on.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii appointed by Trump to lead the intelligence community, testified before Congress in March that the U.S. “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
However, the White House now claims that Iran has acquired all necessary materials and expertise to construct a nuclear weapon and is only awaiting final authorisation from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Trump has said Iran is “very close to having” a nuclear weapon and is weighing military action.
“This week, Iran is further along than they were in March,” the president said earlier aboard Air Force One while returning from the G7 summit in Canada.
“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.”
In a statement read at the White House on Thursday, June 19, 2025, by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump said a final decision on whether the U.S. would support or join Israel’s military strikes on Iran would come “within the next two weeks.”
“Based on the fact that there is a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” Leavitt said.
Multiple U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News that the president has been briefed on the risks and strategic implications of striking Iran’s Fordo nuclear site, one of its most heavily fortified facilities.
Gabbard took to social media platform X in response to the president’s remarks, accusing media outlets of misrepresenting her testimony.
“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,” she wrote, suggesting that her earlier remarks were made in a different context.
Vice President JD Vance also defended Gabbard, posting on X that “Tulsi’s testimony was in March, and a lot has changed since then.”
Amid rising tensions, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with European diplomats in Geneva on Friday.
The meetings are seen as a last-ditch attempt to avoid a regional escalation, with the U.S. and Israel warning of possible military action if Iran advances further toward weaponisation.
Asked again on Friday, June 20, 2025, whether a strike could come sooner than the two-week deadline, Trump said, “I’m giving them a period of time. We’ll see what that period of time is. But two weeks would be the maximum.”
