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Trump Disputes Early U.S. Intel Report; Trump in NATO Leaders Summit; U.S. Intel: Strikes Did Not Destroy Iran's Nuclear Sites. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired June 25, 2025 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I believe it was total obliteration. I believe they didn't have a chance to get anything out because we acted fast. If we -- if it would've taken two weeks, maybe, but it's very hard to remove that kind of material. Very hard and very dangerous for them to remove it.

Plus, they knew we were coming. And if they know we're coming, they're not going to be down there. There aren't too many people that are going to be down there.

Pete, do you have something to say about that?

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, Mr. President, when you talk to the people who built the bombs, understand what those bombs can do and deliver those bombs, they landed precisely where they were supposed to. So, it's a flawless mission.

TRUMP: Flawless.

HEGSETH: Right down where we knew they needed to enter. And given the 30,000 pounds of explosives and capability of those munitions, it was devastation underneath Fordow. And the amount of munitions, six per location, any assessment that tells you it was something otherwise is speculating with other motives. And we know that because when you actually look at the report, by the way, it was a top-secret report, it was preliminary, it was low confidence. All right. So, this isn't you make assessments based on what you know, they don't --

TRUMP: And it said, it could be very devastating, very serious.

HEGSETH: Moderate to severe. And we believe far more likely, severe and obliterated. So, this is a political motive here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) investigation?

HEGSETH: Of course. We're doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now, because this information is for internal purposes, battle damage assessments. And CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success.

TRUMP: We had a tremendous success. And this is The New York Times. I call it the failing The New York Times. It's going to hell. And CNN, which as you know, very few people are watching. And you would think they'd do the opposite. You would think they'd want to say, this was an unbelievable success. And the thing that hurts me is it's really demeaning to the pilots and the people that put that whole thing together, the generals, that was a perfect operation.

And when you look at the holes -- and this was done from 52,000 feet, there was no moon, there was no light. And they -- those three holes are right together. And also, and nobody talks about this, we shot 30 tomahawks from submarines. In particular one submarine, but that was 400 miles away. And every one of those tomahawks hit within a foot of where they were supposed to hit. Took out a lot of buildings that Israel wasn't able to get. We took them out with tomahawks. We don't even talk about that. This was a devastating attack and it knocked them for a loop.

And, you know, if it didn't, they wouldn't have settled. If they had won, if we didn't take it out, they wouldn't have settled. Somebody mentioned that to me last night. If that thing wasn't devastated, they would've never settled. Marco, do you have something to say?

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes. No, first of all, on the stuff about the intelligence, this is what a leaker is telling you the intelligence says. That's the game these people play. They read it, and then they go out and characterize it the way they want it characterized, and they're leakers. This is the game they play. So, that's number one.

Number two, here's a fact. The conversion facility, which you can't do a nuclear weapon without a conversion facility. You can't -- we can't even find where it is, where it used to be on the map. You can't even find where it used to be, because the whole thing is just blackened out. It's gone.

TRUMP: It's wiped out.

RUBIO: It's wiped out. Then we dropped 12 of the strongest bombs on the planet right down the hole in two places. Everything underneath that mountain is in bad shape. And I refer you to the statement of the IAEA, Mr. Grossi. You know what he said? He said there was Iran the way it looked the day before the attack and what their nuclear program looks like now. Two very different things. They are way behind where they were just seven days ago.

Now, anything in the world can be rebuilt, but now, we know where it is and if they try to rebuild it, we'll have options there as well. But all this leaker stuff, these leakers are professional stabbers. That's what they are. They go out and they read this stuff, and then they tell you what it says, against the law, but they characterize it for you in a way that's absolutely false.

There's no way Iran comes to the table if somehow nothing had happened. This was complete and total obliteration. They're in bad shape. They're way behind today compared to where they were just seven days ago because of what the president did.

RUTTE: And, Marco, can I just alert you to one other aspect? So, the great thing is you took out the nuclear capability of Iran. This was crucial. You did it in a way which is extremely impressive, but the signal sense to the rest of the world that this president, when it comes to it, yes, he's a man of peace, but if necessary, he's willing to use strength, the enormous strength of the American military.

So, I think that signal to the rest of the world, this is far beyond Iran, is extremely important. So, let me also point us to that aspect of what happens today.

TRUMP: They went down. Iran went down to the site afterwards. They said it's so devastated and they settled when they saw what we did to it. And frankly, if we didn't do that, they would've had a lot of ammunition to keep going. They wouldn't have settled. Somebody brought that up. And two Iranians went down to see it and they called back and they said, this place is gone. So, it's just fake news by CNN, which has got no ratings. It's a failed network. Anybody here from CNN by the way? Because you're really disgraceful network. MSNBC I think is actually worse.

[04:35:00]

But they're all pretty bad. But yours is good, Katie (ph), I'll tell you. You know what Marco reminded me that he did such a nice job there. It was nine years ago -- I had to debate this guy. It was not easy. I think he even got better. But when you were into your little thing, I said, this is what I had to debate this guy. You think it's easy to debate. It's not easy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long do you think that the Iranian nuclear program has been put back by these strikes, years or totally?

TRUMP: I think basically decades, because I don't think they'll ever do it again. I just don't think they're going to do it. I think they're going to take their oil. They're going to have some missiles and they'll have some defense. I think they've had it. I mean, they just went through hell. I think they've had it. The last thing they want to do is enrich. They've been trying to do it. By the way, it's hard to enrich.

And you know, when you look at a site like that, very, very hard to build. Very, very hard. Very expensive. They spent trillions of dollars trying to do this thing and they didn't come up with it. And we're actually getting along with them very well right now.

But had we not succeeded with that hit -- that hit ended the war. If that hit ended the war. I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki. But that was essentially the same thing that ended that war. This ended that with a war. If we didn't take that out, they would've been -- they'd be fighting right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, if the Iranians do rebuild, would the United States --

TRUMP: If they rebuild?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would the United States strike again? And I've also a question about Russia.

TRUMP: Sure. Look, I'm not going to have to worry about that. It's gone for years, years. Very tough to rebuild because the whole thing has collapsed. In other words, inside it's all collapsed. Nobody can get in to see it because it's collapsed. You can't go in to see a room that has, you know, 10 million tons of rock in it. And the tunnels are totally collapsed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if they rebuilt?

TRUMP: Well, they've already looked at the tunnels. This was an unbelievable hit by genius pilots and genius people in the military, and they're not being given credit for it because we have scum that's in this group, and not all of you are. You have some great reporters, but you have scum. CNN is scum. MSDNZ is scum. The New York Times is scum. They're bad people. They're sick. And what they've done is they're trying to make this unbelievable victory into something less.

Now, even they admit that it was hit very hard. OK. But it wasn't hit, it was hit brutally and it knocked it out. The original word that I use -- I guess it got us in trouble because it's a strong word, it was obliteration. And you'll see that and it's going to come out. Israel is doing a report on it now, I understand. And I was told that they said it was total obliteration.

You know, they have guys that go in there after the hit. And they say it was total obliteration. And you know, I don't want it for me, I want it for the pilots, I want it for the military, they did such a good job. If you were in the Situation Room with me, with the generals and all of the people that did such a good job, and then they get demeaned by these idiots at CNN who can't get ratings, a place that's dying, nobody wants to even waste their time going on their shows. So, they form with The New York Times, who's dying also. Without Trump, you wouldn't have a New York Times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then, just changing gears to your meeting with Zelenskyy later today. Can you give us any preview of what the two of you might be discussing?

TRUMP: No. Well, we'll discuss the obvious. We'll discuss his difficulty. He's got a little difficulty, Zelenskyy. He's a nice guy. I mean, I'm going to meet him today. I don't know. I assume we're going to be discussing Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: It seems like (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any restart prompts there or anything that you might do?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to see. I mean, I've spoken to Putin a lot and he actually was very nice. He volunteered help on -- as you know, on Iran, I said, no, I don't need help on Iran. I need help on Russia. OK. I said, do me a favor, help us on Russia, not on Iran. But he was very nice. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk. I think progress is being made. I think great progress is being made on Gaza. I think the -- because of this attack that we made, I think we're going to have some very good news.

I was talking to Steve Witkoff, who by the way, is terrific, and who knows more about this subject than anybody. The subject of what we were just talking about. He was on last night with Jesse and with Laura and with Sean. And boy, he has a great take on it. He just explains it so easily. He's really very knowledgeable. But he did tell me that Gaza is very close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One follow up on Iran. Both you and Secretary Rubio and Hegseth mentioned the leak, but can you clarify, is the intelligence correct or is the intelligence wrong?

[04:40:00]

TRUMP: Well, the intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence is, we don't know. It could have been very severe. That's what the intelligence says. So, I guess that's correct, but I think we can take the, we don't know. It was very severe. It was obliteration.

And you'd think that a media outlet would say -- isn't that a great thing? I mean, more importantly for the pilots, for the military, you take their guts out, you take their absolute guts out. They had a tremendous attack. It was a complete obliteration. The other team, the other group, Iran, said, let's stop this. And you know what? Israel said it too. Very smart.

They fought like hell and then they said, let's stop. And they're going to build themselves. And I really see it as sticking. I mean, we may do papers on it, Marco, maybe we're going to do papers. I don't even know if you need them. They're not going to be fighting each other. They've had it. They've had a big fight. Like two kids at a school yard. You know, they fight like hell. You can't stop them. Let them fight for about two, three minutes, then it's easy to stop them.

RUTTE: And then, daddy has to sometimes do strong language to do stop --

TRUMP: You have to use strong language. Every once in a while you have to use a certain word.

RUTTE: I think we have to join the other (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Yes. We're going to join some other group. Yes. Thank you. Katie, one --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just one last question. Do you believe that --

TRUMP: I only -- she's so good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

TRUMP: She used to be very difficult. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe that this strike on the Iranian nuclear program will lead to the release of the hostages in Gaza?

TRUMP: I think that it helped a little bit. It showed a lot of power. Yes, I think it helped. But we're going to get -- separately, even before this, we were very close to making a deal on Gaza. I think this helped. Yes. OK. Thank you, Katie (ph).

RUTTE: Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: All right. Well, that is Donald Trump alongside the NATO secretary general repeating his now well-worn thoughts about CNN. It has to be said and other networks. We are, of course, just reporting the facts, however inconvenient those facts are.

And he was asked what he made of reporting that a preliminary assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency suggests that the damage to Fordow may be far less than the president and others said it was immediately after the attack. And this is what he said, look, he said Iran knew we were coming. They didn't have a chance to remove any of the enriched Iranian, which it has reported they did do. It's been a tremendous victory, he said. Iran will not be building bombs for a long time. And he said he is waiting to hear from Israeli intelligence if indeed Fordow was devastated.

If it wasn't, he said, Iran wouldn't have settled for a ceasefire. It is all collapsed, he said. Pete Hegseth backing him up, suggesting that the bombs -- or saying that the bombs landed precisely where they were supposed to land. And he went on to say, any intelligence that tells you anything else is speculating with political motive. Pete Hegseth also saying that there is now a leak investigation ongoing with the FBI.

When asked whether he -- how he felt about the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, Donald Trump said it is going very well. He said, I'm very proud of Israel. Iran has a smart country. They've had -- they've had it, he said, but they can come back from this. They have their oil, he said, and we are getting along with them very well right now. Israel was hit hard as well, he said, but Benjamin Netanya should be proud of himself. Right.

Those -- the statements by Donald Trump and his team in response to questions from reporters there in The Hague. Live now to The Hague, and CNN's Clare Sebastian. Clare, I have to say, this started with some very choice words from the NATO security general, absolutely applauding, making no bones about the fact that he is fully supportive of Donald Trump and his attitude towards NATO in getting spending up to 5 percent. You know, couldn't -- he couldn't have been more supportive of the U.S. president today. Clare, what did you make of what we've just heard?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I think there were two really good things in there for NATO. Number one, I think it's a victory that he's here in the first place. Certainly, a lot of the leaders that you speak to were sort of holding fire until they actually saw him in place here in The Hague.

[04:45:00]

Secondly, he seems in a very upbeat mood, President Trump. The ceasefire seems to be holding. He's claiming victory in Iran. And I think from the NATO side, Secretary General Mark Rutte is continuing with this wholesale charm offensive that has really characterized this summit so far, not only giving Trump full credit for the fact that we expect to see NATO leaders here today commit to 5 percent defense spending over the next 10 years, a generational shift from what we've seen before, he said none of that would've happened without Trump. He said that multiple times over the course of the last few days.

But really strikingly chiming in when the discussion shifted as it mostly focused on Iran during that -- those remarks, chiming in, giving more praise for the strikes, calling Trump a man of peace, but sending a signal that he's willing to use force when necessary. So, full-throated praise from the NATO secretary general.

But I will say, you know, on the one hand, yes, we have a NATO Summit that Trump has supercharged with this 5 percent demand, this demand that NATO members spend 5 percent of GDP on defense. But on the other hand, he has plunged this alliance into some degree of uncertainty. We've just watched the leaders arriving this morning, and almost all of them had to basically clarify and answer questions about various controversial remarks that we've heard from Trump in the lead up to this. Number one on the plane that he said that he -- you know, he thought there were multiple definitions of Article 5. He refused to endorse it in a full-throated way.

We heard from the Dutch prime minister that he said Article 5 is absolutely clear. They were asked about Spain, which Donald Trump called a problem Spain has objected that 5 percent target, and we understand has negotiated some flexibility. And of course, those text messages that Donald Trump published on Truth Social from Mark Rutte, which NATO has confirmed are real, which were really extreme in their level of flattery and said, Europe is going to pay up big time, big in block capitals, almost in the style of Trump.

Mark Rutte, the secretary general, was asked about that and he seemed not at all worried about it and said it was simply a statement of fact, but there has been a lot of delicate messaging around Donald Trump's arrival, even as we see this really as a sort of strong and promising moment in the eyes of the NATO secretary general. Becky.

ANDERSON: It's good to have you, Clare. Thank you very much in there. Busy there. Thank you very much indeed. A busy day there. Then as you rightly point out, full-throated support from the NATO chief for Donald Trump. We are going to take a very short break. Back after this.

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[04:50:00]

ANDERSON: Well, an early U.S. intelligence assessment casting doubt on President Trump's claims that the United States has completely destroyed three of Iran's top nuclear facilities. The assessment was produced by the Pentagon's Intelligence Agency. Sources tell CNN the analysis suggests that the U.S. strikes did not destroy the core components of Iran's nuclear facilities. Instead, they may have set Iran's enrichment capabilities back by mere months. Well, the sources also say the impact to the Isfahan, Fordow, and Natanz sites was largely restricted to above ground structures.

Well, Hassan Ahmadian joins me now from Tehran. He is an assistant professor of Middle Eastern North Africa Studies at the University of Tehran and a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies. And the U.S. president, just moments ago, addressing those leaked reports and absolutely refuting them. He did also just moments ago describe Iran as a smart country and said that he expects the U.S. and Iran to have a relationship in the future. Your reaction to that news that we heard just five minutes ago?

HASSAN AHMADIAN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF TEHRAN AND SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR MIDDLE EAST STRATEGIC STUDIES: Well, you know, you hear different things from President Trump. He just bombed the country and he's talking about good relations with that same country. He says that he basically destroyed the entire nuclear program, but still he has the maximum pressure which was put on Iran due to that program in place. He might as well lift those sanctions.

And you hear Europeans telling the word, in their state statements, that the only way to deal with Iran's nuclear program is diplomacy. If the program was destroyed and now and as you would suggest, well, what are they willing to talk about? And he wants to talk with Iran, but the question is, what about if the nuclear program that was the bulk of Iran-U.S. indirect negotiations in Oman and Rome is, as he suggests, is done with? Then what is the subject for discussion there?

ANDERSON: Well, we can discuss that. Before we do -- and I think you're raising a very good point. And we just do not know what the details or the terms of either this ceasefire or any U.S.-Iran have further talks might be at this point. And like I say, we can discuss that.

Before we do, we've just learned that the Iranian parliament has voted to suspend cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog. That decision ultimately lies with the Supreme National Security Council. What do you expect that council to decide?

[04:55:00]

AHMADIAN: Well, I think this is a basically warm up to the snack back mechanism that the Europeans have said they will trigger before October. That snapback mechanism were reintroduce the U.N. security council sanctions on Iran, which means that the -- that we are back to before 2015. And the Iranians have said that they will withdraw from the NPT. They'll notify the IAEA their willingness to withdraw.

I think, you know, suspending cooperation with the IAEA has a lot to with the NPT and talks Iran is that we are a member of the NPT. We were attacked by a nuclear state, which is not a member of the NPT, that is Israel. We were attacked by a member of the NPT, that is another nuclear state, that is the United States, and the NPT didn't really help us in our security. So, why stay there?

This is getting really stronger, this debate. And I think this you know, parliament, you know, decision has a lot to do with this discussion within Iran. And basically, what is left in the discussions between -- or the talks between Iran and the United States will pivot to another territory if that is to happen.

The Supreme National Security consul in Iran has to ratify it. I think they will wait to see where the snapback mechanism on the part of Europeans will go and then decide on it.

ANDERSON: Hassan, it's good to have you. Hassan Ahmadian speaking to us today from Tehran. And thank you, folks, for joining us for this hour. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi, from our Middle East programming headquarters here. I'll be back with more news after this short break. Stay with us.

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