Trump administration challenges initial damage assessments from Iran strikes

Defense Intelligence report indicates that he doubts president Donald Trump’s claim that the recent US air strikes “fully reassured” three Iranian nuclear facilities, instead, the mission only concluded Iran’s program for several months.

The report, published by CNN and the New York Times, comes a few days after Trump’s approval of the strikes amid the escalation of tensions between Israel and Iran. In a national speech immediately after the operation, Trump announced that the sites were “completely blurring and completely.”

While the Trump administration members have launched a new war to discredit the initial report of the Pentagon Defense Intelligence Agency, many experts told Fox News that there is little information available at the present time to determine the amount of damage caused to the strikes.

They said that the collection of comprehensive intelligence evaluation is complex and time.

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Dan Shapiro, who previously held the position of Deputy Minister of Defense in the Middle East and the American ambassador to Israel, said he did not put many stocks in both pessimistic or excessive optimistic assessments that appeared quickly, and said that the initial evaluation of Dia was only possible based on the satellite images.

“This is part of the mystery of how this evaluation is truly made,” Shapiro, a older colleague of the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital. “You really want to test all other intelligence streams, starting with intelligence signals, human intelligence, other forms of site monitoring, and possibly visits by IAEA inspectors, and perhaps visits by other people. So this will take from days to weeks to obtain a real evaluation.”

“But I think it is likely that if the munitions that were as expected, this happened greatly, and the program will be greatly restored,” said Shapiro.

General Dan Kane, Chairman of the Joint Staff Board of Directors, said on Sunday that the initial battle damage assessments suggested that “all the three sites were severely damaged and destroyed,” but he admitted that the final evaluation “would take some time.”

However, the media reports based on the DIA report drew a different image, and CNN reports said about the initial report that the Iranian hideout of enriched uranium was not destroyed in the strikes, citing seven people who were informed of the report. The results were based on assessing the damage of the battle from the US Central Command, according to the CNN.

After that, other members of the Trump administration, including Defense Minister Beit Higseth, then retracted the Dia report, claiming that the report was classified “low confidence”.

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Defense Minister Beit Higseth speaks during a press conference in the Pentagon, on Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

The term is commonly used when describing initial assessments, and means that conclusions are based on limited data, according to experts.

Retired Admiral in retired navy, Mark Montgomery, who previously served as director of national threats at the National Security Council of former President Bill Clinton, said the description of low confidence is usually used in early evaluation.

“Low confidence means that the analyst is not sure of the accuracy of their evaluation,” said Montgomery, a oldest colleague in Washington. “This is repeated when it is with a quick look over 24 hours like this.”

Fellow of Montgomery, Craig Singon, also a older colleague at the Defense Defense Foundation, said the low confidence mark is used in thin evidence issues and works as a warning to policy makers to search for additional information.

“More importantly, low -confidential assessments are usually released when the main facts have not been verified yet, which definitely applies in this case,” Singonon said.

Rob Greenway, a former Fox News Digital Assistant President, said that it would take a period or two to obtain a more comprehensive evaluation with greater confidence.

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US President Donald Trump is holding a meeting alongside Vice President JD Vance in the White House chamber in Washington, DC, on June 21, 2025. (White House/Bulletin via Reuters)

Greenway also said that the strikes were designed to create an underground damage, which will complicate the evaluation of the damage, because it is immediately available and will require multiple sources of intelligence, such as signals or human intelligence, to extract conclusions.

Greenway said that Israel had a pre -hunger strike, adding to the analysis network that must be evaluated.

“Each is a single piece of the largest puzzle, and you are trying to measure the final effect of the completion of the mystery, not just a specific blow,” said Greenwi, who is now the director of the Alison National Security Center at the Heritage Corporation. “All this means that it will take some time to do so.”

However, Greenway said that the amount of munitions that decreased on the sites-including more than 14,000 pounds. Bombs – It means that the targeted facilities have been extremely dangerous that they are no longer served.

“We used to put twice the amount of munitions required to achieve the required effect, just to ensure that we had no return,” Greenawi said.

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President Donald Trump and Foreign Minister Marco Rubio (PBUH) sits in the situation room while monitoring the mission that brought out three Iranian enrichment sites, at the White House on June 21, 2025, in Washington, DC, (Daniel Torok/White House via Getti Emiez)

“There is almost no athletic possibility in which any of the attachments can be used by Iran for the intended purpose, if any, which means again that everything now is within Israel’s ability to strike if this is required,” Greenway said.

Michael Aline, a former National Security Council director at the George W. Bush administration, said that although the final ruling of the intelligence community will not be ready soon, the image of the intelligence will become “richer” in the coming days, said Michael Allen, former director of the National Security Council in the George W. Bush administration.

“Things are flowing, we gather there, and they are trying to hustle them to the White House as soon as possible,” Allen, the administrative director of Beacon Global Strategies, told Fox News Digital.

White House journalist Caroline Levitte told reporters that a few people managed to reach this report, and that those who leaked him to the media would receive responsibility as the FBI who participated in the document with the press is looking at the press.

“This person was not responsible for,” Levitte told reporters on Thursday. “We need to reach below. We need to enhance this process to protect our national security and protect the American public.”