Trump says Gabbard was 'wrong' about Iran and Israeli strikes could be
'very hard to stop'
[June 21, 2025]
By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that his director
of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was “wrong” when she previously
said that the U.S. believed Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon, and
he suggested that it would be “very hard to stop” Israel's strikes on
Iran in order to negotiate a possible ceasefire.
Trump has recently taken a more aggressive public stance toward Tehran
as he's sought more time to weigh whether to attack Iran by striking its
well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility. Buried under a
mountain, the facility is believed to be out of the reach of all but
America’s “bunker-buster” bombs.
After landing in New Jersey for an evening fundraiser for his super
political action committee, Trump was asked about Gabbard's comments to
Congress in March that U.S. spy agencies believed that Iran wasn't
working on nuclear warheads. The president responded, “Well then, my
intelligence community is wrong. Who in the intelligence community said
that?”
Informed that it had been Gabbard, Trump said, “She's wrong.”
In a subsequent post on X, Gabbard said her testimony was taken out of
context “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,” she wrote. “President Trump has been clear that can’t happen,
and I agree.”
Still, disavowing Gabbard’s previous assessment came a day after the
White House said Trump would decide within two weeks whether the U.S.
military would get directly involved in the conflict between Israel and
Iran. It said seeking additional time was “based on the fact that
there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take
place with Iran in the near future.”
But on Friday, Trump himself seemed to cast doubts on the possibility of
talks leading to a pause in fighting between Israel and Iran. He said
that, while he might support a ceasefire, Israel's strikes on Iran could
be “very hard to stop.”
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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters upon arriving at
Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Friday, June 20,
2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Asked about Iran suggesting that, if the U.S. was serious about
furthering negotiations, it could call on Israel to stop its
strikes, Trump responded, “I think it’s very hard to make that
request right now.”
“If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if
somebody is losing," Trump said. “But we’re ready, willing and able,
and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens.”
The president later added, “It’s very hard to stop when you look at
it.”
"Israel’s doing well in terms of war. And, I think, you would say
that Iran is doing less well. It’s a little bit hard to get somebody
to stop," Trump said.
Trump campaigned on decrying “endless wars” and has vowed to be an
international peacemaker. That's led some, even among conservatives,
to point to Trump’s past criticism of the U.S. invasion of Iraq
beginning in 2003 as being at odds with his more aggressive stance
toward Iran now.
Trump suggested the two situations were very different, though.
“There were no weapons of mass destruction. I never thought there
were. And that was somewhat pre-nuclear. You know, it was, it was a
nuclear age, but nothing like it is today,” Trump said of his past
criticism of the administration of President George W. Bush.
He added of Iran’s current nuclear program, “It looked like I’m
right about the material that they’ve gathered already. It’s a
tremendous amount of material.”
Trump also cast doubts on Iran's developing nuclear capabilities for
civilian pursuits, like power generation.
“You’re sitting on one of the largest oil piles anywhere in the
world,” he said. “It’s a little bit hard to see why you’d need
that.”
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