President Donald Trump took a swipe at Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard over her "wrong" assertion that Iran isn't building nuclear weapons, Newsmax reported. This was the second time in the same week that Trump publicly contradicted her.
Israel and Iran are locked in a war that's escalating by the day. Israel contends that Iran has been enriching enough uranium to build a bomb, thus justifying its preemptive action.
The White House has gone with the messaging that Iran simply "cannot have a nuclear weapon," as it's clear that the administration may be looking to get the U.S. more involved. Meanwhile, Gabbard has consistently reported that intelligence suggests Iran does not have the bomb.
This undermines the messaging coming from the White House, so the press has asked Trump about it. Twice this week, the president made it clear that he doesn't believe his director of national intelligence and will likely move based on his own suspicions about Iran.
Trump took questions from the press after landing in New Jersey on Friday. The president, who notoriously opposed the Iraq War, is beginning to make arguments suspiciously like the "weapons of mass destruction" line that justified that war.
A reporter first asked Trump about the similarity, but the president argued that it's different this time. "What intelligence do you have that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Your intelligence community had said they have no evidence that they are at this point," a reporter asked.
"Well, then, my intelligence community is wrong. Who in the intelligence community said that?" Trump replied.
When the reporter clarified that it is his "director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard," Trump did not hesitate to double down on his assertion. "Well, she’s wrong," Trump said.
Friday's comment was just the latest that broke with Gabbard. The national security director's testimony before Congress in March noted that Iran's "Supreme Leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003."
On Tuesday, Trump was asked about her assessment and contradicted her statements from that testimony. "I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one," Trump said.
For her part, Gabbard maintains that Trump is not in disagreement with her. "President Trump was saying the same thing that I said in my annual threat assessment back in March in Congress," Gabbard claimed when asked to respond to Trump's earlier comment.
"Unfortunately, too many people in the media don’t care to actually read what I said," Gabbard added. However, it's difficult to believe that the two are in lock step after Trump was caught telling the world that Gabbard is wrong.
There is a great deal of conflicting messaging surrounding this conflict as it continues to unfold. The one saving grace is that Trump has historically been averse to war, and it's likely he will do all he can to keep the U.S. out of harm's way.
