For the second time in a week, President Donald Trump called his director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard “wrong.”
Trump was questioned about his intelligence community, saying that they have no evidence that Iran has nuclear weapons.
The president doubled down on earlier comments by Gabbard, claiming his “intelligence community is wrong.” He asked a reporter in the intelligence community who had made those comments.
When he was told Gabbard made those claims, he replied, “she’s wrong.”
Trump’s comments come a few days after he initially disputed Gabbard.
While briefing reporters on Air Force One early Tuesday morning en route back to the White House from the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada, the president was asked a similar question concerning Gabbard speaking before a Senate intelligence briefing in March; she claimed Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon.
“I don’t care what she said. They were very close to getting a nuke,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
In March, Gabbard said the intelligence community was assessing the nuclear situation in Iran.
“Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,” Gabbard said.
Following the president’s remarks Friday, Gabbard accused the media of being “dishonest” by taking her testimony “out of context” to stoke “division.”
“The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division. 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. President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree,” Gabbard posted to X.
The president has maintained the Islamic Republic is on the cusp of developing nuclear weapons.
“I’m right about the [nuclear] material that [Iran] gathered already. It’s a tremendous amount of material, and I think within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months, they’re going to be able to have a nuclear weapon. We can’t let that happen,” said the president.
When asked about the two-week timeline he is giving Iran, the president specified that “two weeks would be the maximum, ” adding that he is giving them time to see if they will “come to their senses.”
Ahead of next week’s NATO summit, the president was also asked about European involvement in the talks with Iran, to which he replied, “Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe.”
The president’s remarks come as fighting between Israel and Iran entered its second week.
