Trump says Iran’s nuclear program is destroyed; others aren’t so sure
President Trump and top administration officials have quickly taken a victory lap in the wake of Saturday’s strikes on Iran, saying the attacks achieved their primary goal of “obliterating” Tehran’s nuclear program.
But the administration has not yet produced the evidence to back that claim, Congress has yet to be briefed on the attacks, and nuclear experts at home and abroad are cautioning that any damage assessment is premature without a closer inspection of the targeted sites.
The uncertainty is raising questions both about the effectiveness of the Pentagon strikes and whether Trump will order further incursions to clean up any potential loose ends — an option the president already floated over the weekend. On Capitol Hill, that ambiguity has prompted Democratic accusations that Trump is inflating the effectiveness of the attacks for political gain.
“There's zero evidence that I've seen that the nuclear program was completely and totally obliterated as Donald Trump has claimed,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters Monday in the Capitol. “No evidence that has been presented to Congress to suggest that that has occurred.”
Jeffries cited news reports suggesting Iran moved some of its enriched uranium ahead of the strikes — “which would effectively allow them to remain in a position to become a nuclear power,” he warned.
The uncertainty is being echoed by leading nuclear experts, including the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations.
Speaking in Vienna on Monday, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said at this time, no entities can fully assess the damage inflicted by the U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, including at Fordow, Tehran’s principle enrichment site which is contained deep within a mountain. The Pentagon struck the area with massive ground-penetrating weapons, known as bunker busters, but the true effectiveness of the U.S. mission, Grossi said, remains unknown several days later.
“At this time, no one — including the IAEA — is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage at Fordow,” Mariano told the members of the U.N. Security Council. “Given the explosive payload utilized, and the extreme, vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred.”
The White House insists the strike was a knockout. Trump on Saturday said it “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down Monday.
“We are confident, yes, that Iran’s nuclear sites were completely and totally obliterated, as the president said in his address to the nation on Saturday night,” Leavitt said on ABC.
Hours later, Trump amplified the claim once again, attacking the media for questioning the effectiveness of the operations.
“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The claims have done little to assuage some members of Congress in both parties. One pair of lawmakers — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — are urging colleagues to get behind a resolution that would block further military operations in Iran without explicit congressional approval.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) shot down that concept Monday, however, saying Trump has the unilateral authority to act as commander in chief.
“I don’t think this is an appropriate time for a war powers resolution, and I don’t think it’s necessary,” Johnson told reporters.
On Capitol Hill, administration officials are scheduled to brief the House and Senate on Tuesday afternoon. Heading into those closed-door gatherings, many Democrats appeared ready to challenge the administration, not only for its unusual decision not to brief top members of Congress on the strikes beforehand, but also over Trump’s claims that Iran's nuclear capabilities have been put out of commission.
Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called Trump’s victory lap “insane.”
“You don't need to be an intelligence professional to know that we have no idea whether these strikes were successful,” Himes told CNN on Monday. “Now, if what you're looking for is a big boom and a large hole in the ground, I have very little doubt that our bunker-busters did a big boom and a very large hole in the ground. But … we don't know sitting here right now whether the highly enriched uranium was in the Fordow facility or in the Natanz facility.
“We have no idea in the world right now whether these strikes were in any way successful.”