Trump slams media for questioning damage to Iran nuclear sites

President Trump railed Monday against media reports that were skeptical whether U.S. forces “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities as he asserted.

“The sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it. Only the Fake News would say anything different in order to try and demean, as much as possible — And even they say they were ‘pretty well destroyed!’” Mr. Trump wrote on social media Monday.

The president specifically called out CNN, ABC News and NBC News.

“It never ends with the sleazebags in the Media, and that’s why their Ratings are at an ALL TIME LOW — ZERO CREDIBILITY!” he wrote. 

It was the president’s first post on social media since Iran fired retaliatory missiles toward the U.S. military base in Qatar.

In an address to the nation Saturday night, Mr. Trump said Iran’s three key nuclear facilities “have been completely and totally obliterated.”

But Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday it was “way too early” for him to “comment on what may or may not still be there.”

When Vice President J.D. Vance was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday to comment on whether the sites were obliterated, he didn’t concretely say they were.

“I’m not going to get into sensitive intelligence about what we’ve seen on the ground there in Iran. But we’ve seen a lot, and I feel very confident, that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon,” he said. “And that was the goal of this attack. That’s why it was a success.”

Officials from other countries have hinted that the sites might not have been totally obliterated.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chair of the security council for Russia, said Sunday in a social media post criticizing the U.S. attacks that the facilities only sustained minor damage.

He also said the production of nuclear weapons will continue and that “a number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads.”