总统唐纳德·特朗普和国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯(Pete Hegseth)周三都试图反驳美国情报部门的初步评估，即对伊朗三座核设施的袭击造成了有限的损害，声称该报告的新闻报道贬低了投掷炸弹的B-2飞行员。
特朗普在即将离开荷兰北约峰会的新闻发布会上说，飞行员对空袭没有取得完全成功的说法感到“震惊”。
周三，他数次被问及国防情报局的初步评估纳坦兹、伊斯法罕和福尔多核设施的爆炸很可能使伊朗的核计划推迟了几个月。他承认收到了报告，但指出报告不完整。
他回击了提出相关问题的记者，重复了他的说法，即伊朗的核计划已被“抹杀”，并将焦点转移到实施袭击的飞行员身上。
“你应该表扬那些人，而不是试图通过去抓我来找出答案。你正在伤害那些人，”特朗普告诉记者。
周三晚些时候，在一篇真实的社交帖子中，他说黑格斯将在周四上午举行新闻发布会，“为了我们伟大的美国飞行员的尊严而战。”
“他们感觉糟透了!对他们来说幸运的是，和往常一样，这只是为了贬低唐纳德·j·特朗普总统，”他说。"新闻发布会将被证明既有趣又无可辩驳。"
总统在荷兰的新闻发布会上声称，他接到了来自飞行员所在的密苏里州的电话，询问情报报告和相关新闻报道，称他被告知他们“非常震惊，因为他们试图将袭击最小化。”
“我和其中一个人谈过了。他说，“先生，我们到了。太完美了。特朗普说，这完全正确，“因为他们不懂假新闻”。
五角大楼将美国广播公司新闻的问题转给了白宫。
特朗普补充说，关于飞行员，“他们崩溃了。他们冒着生命危险。”
自周六的袭击事件以来，特朗普和他的官员一再赞扬B-2飞行员的任务，但在周三的反击中，他们又提到了他们。站在特朗普旁边的海格塞斯来到麦克风前，争辩说新闻记者和媒体“不在乎部队怎么想。”
黑格塞斯说:“这些飞行员、这些加油员、这些战斗机、这些空中卫士，代表世界上的美国人民飞行36个小时进入敌方领土摧毁核计划所需要的技能和勇气，是在座的任何人都无法理解的。”
与此同时，海格塞斯和特朗普淡化了报告关于损害的初步调查结果。
“报告是这么说的，没问题。他们认为这很严重，但他们不知道。他们不应该发布报告，直到他们发布了，但我们已经得到了信息，”特朗普说。
特朗普早些时候引用了一份以色列情报报告，他坚持认为“对福尔多的袭击摧毁了该网站的关键基础设施，使浓缩设施完全无法运行。”
军方官员表示，毫无疑问，这些地点遭受了重大破坏，但“战斗破坏评估”需要时间来完成，因为截至周三，没有西方官员能够亲自检查这些地点。
国家情报总监Tulsi Gabbard在周三晚些时候发布在X上的一份声明中说，“伊朗的核设施已经被摧毁”，并抨击了新闻媒体。一位了解加巴德评估的消息人士告诉ABC新闻，她的描述来自美国新情报部门。
“宣传媒体已经部署了他们的惯用策略:有选择地发布非法泄露的机密情报评估的部分内容(故意忽略评估是在“低信任度”下写的这一事实)，试图破坏特朗普总统的决定性领导以及那些完美地执行了一项真正历史性任务的勇敢的男女军人，以确保美国人民的安全，”她在部分帖子中写道。
Hegseth认为初步报告和图像说明了一切。
“所以，如果你想对福尔多发生的事情进行评估，你最好拿起一把大铲子，深入到真正的深处，因为伊朗的核计划已经被抹杀，某个地方的某人正试图泄露一些东西，说，‘哦，信心不足，我们认为这可能是温和的。’”他声称。
Trump, Hegseth slam news coverage of US intel report on Iran attack, say B-2 pilots upset
PresidentDonald Trumpand Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday both tried to counter a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment that the attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities did limited damage by claiming news accounts of the report demeaned the B-2 pilots who dropped the bombs.
Speaking at a news conference as he was set to leave the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Trump claimed the pilots are "devastated" by the suggestion the strikes were not a complete success.
He was asked several times Wednesday about the Defense Intelligence Agency'sinitial assessmentthat the bombings of the Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo facilities likely set back Iran's nuclear program by only a few months. He acknowledged the receipt of the report but noted it was incomplete.
He snapped back at reporters raising questions about it, repeating his claim Iran's nuclear program was "obliterated," and shifted the focus to the pilots who carried out the strike.
"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," Trump told reporters.
Later Wednesday, in a Truth Social post, he said Hegseth would hold a news conference Thursday morning "in order to fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots."
"They felt terribly! Fortunately for them and, as usual, solely for the purpose of demeaning PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP," he said in part. "The News Conference will prove both interesting and irrefutable."
The president claimed in his Netherlands news conference that he had received a call from Missouri, where the pilots are based, about the intelligence report and the news accounts about it, saying he had been told they were "devastated, because they were trying to minimize the attack."
"I spoke to one of them. He said, 'Sir, we hit the site. It was perfect. It was dead on,' because they don't understand fake news," Trump said.
The Pentagon referred questions from ABC News to the White House.
Trump added about the pilots that "they were devastated. They put their lives on the line."
Since Saturday's attack, Trump and his officials have repeatedly praised the B-2 pilots for the mission but stepped up referencing them as part of the pushback on Wednesday. Hegseth, standing next to Trump, came to the microphone to argue news reporters and outlets "don't care what the troops think."
"These pilots, these refuelers, these fighters, these air defenders, the skill and the courage it took to go into enemy territory flying 36 hours on behalf of the American people in the world to take out a nuclear program is beyond what anyone in this audience can fathom," Hegseth said.
At the same time, Hegseth and Trump downplayed the report's initial findings about the damage.
"The report said what it said and it was fine. It was severe, they think, but they had no idea. They shouldn't have issued a report until they did, but we've got the information," Trump said.
Trump earlier cited an Israeli intelligence report that he insisted assessed the "strike on Fordo destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility totally inoperable."
Military officials have said there is no doubt the sites sustained significant damage, but that a "battle damage assessment" would take time to complete, as no Western officials have been able to personally inspect the sites as of Wednesday.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement posted on X late Wednesday that "Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed," and also slamming the news media. A source with knowledge of Gabbard's assessment told ABC News her description came from new U.S. intelligence.
"The propaganda media has deployed their usual tactic: selectively release portions of illegally leaked classified intelligence assessments (intentionally leaving out the fact that the assessment was written with "low confidence") to try to undermine President Trump's decisive leadership and the brave servicemen and women who flawlessly executed a truly historic mission to keep the American people safe and secure," she posted in part.
Hegseth contended that the preliminary reports and images spoke for themselves.
"So, if you want to make an assessment of what happened at Fordo, you better get a big shovel and go really deep because Iran's nuclear program is obliterated and somebody somewhere is trying to leak something to say, 'Oh, with low confidence we think maybe it's moderate," he claimed.
