Defence Intelligence Agency assessment suggests bunker busters only set Tehran back MONTHS not years – as Trump’s victory lap turns into damage control
Donald Trump’s triumphant claims of “total obliteration” are crumbling faster than a house of cards as Pentagon insiders blow the whistle on the real impact of America’s much-vaunted strikes on Iran.
Multiple Defence Department sources have sensationally leaked that Operation Midnight Hammer – far from delivering the knockout blow Trump promised – may have barely scratched the surface of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
The explosive revelations suggest those 14 massive bunker-buster bombs, each weighing 30,000 pounds, might have bought the world just a few months’ breathing space rather than the years of safety the President claimed.
Now the White House is in full damage-control mode, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt launching a blistering attack on the “low-level loser” who dared leak the classified assessment.
From ‘obliteration’ to obfuscation
Just days ago, Trump was taking victory laps, declaring to the world that Iran’s nuclear programme had been “completely and totally obliterated” in what he called a “spectacular military success.
The President’s chest-thumping proclamations painted a picture of smoking ruins where Iran’s enrichment facilities once stood, with Tehran’s atomic ambitions buried under tons of rubble.
But according to three separate Pentagon sources speaking to NBC News, the reality is far less impressive. The Defence Intelligence Agency’s initial assessment has reportedly found that core pieces of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure remain intact.
“We were assuming that the damage was going to be much more significant than this assessment is finding,” one source admitted. “That’s a bad sign for the overall programme.”
The leaks that launched a thousand tweets
The classified bombshell didn’t just drop at NBC News. Within hours, similar leaks had reached The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN – suggesting either a coordinated whistle-blowing campaign or widespread dismay within intelligence circles.
The assessment’s most damning conclusion? Those celebrated strikes might have set Iran’s nuclear capabilities back by mere months, not the years needed to meaningfully protect Israel and the West.
For a President who built his reputation on the “art of the deal,” this looks increasingly like a bad bargain – billions spent on a military operation that achieved a fraction of its stated goals.
White House goes nuclear on leakers
The administration’s response has been predictably explosive. Leavitt branded the leaked assessment “flat-out wrong” and launched a withering personal attack on the anonymous source.
“This alleged assessment was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” she fumed, adding that it was a “clear attempt to demean President Trump.”
She insisted that dropping 14 massive bombs “perfectly on their targets” could only result in “total obliteration” – seemingly unaware that Iran’s most critical facilities are buried deep inside mountains precisely to survive such attacks.
Bewilderment beyond the beltway
The leaks have thrown Trump’s “statecraft-by-social-media” approach into sharp relief, with allies and adversaries alike struggling to separate bombast from reality.
If the Pentagon assessments are accurate, it raises terrifying questions about the success of an operation that risked dragging America into another Middle Eastern war.
More troubling still is what it reveals about the gap between Trump’s public pronouncements and private intelligence briefings. Did the President know the strikes had fallen short when he declared victory? Or was he as surprised as everyone else?
The months not years problem
Military analysts have long warned that Iran’s nuclear facilities, particularly the underground Fordow site, were built to withstand aerial assault. The complex sits beneath hundreds of feet of rock, specifically designed to survive bunker-buster attacks.
If the leaks are correct, and key infrastructure survived the bombardment, Iran could restart enrichment within months – leaving the region no safer than before America’s dramatic intervention.
One Pentagon source put it bluntly: “This assessment is already finding that these core pieces are still intact. That’s a bad sign.”
Operation face-save
As the dust settles – both literal and metaphorical – the Trump administration faces an uncomfortable reality. Either the President wildly oversold the success of the strikes, or the Pentagon’s own intelligence apparatus is actively undermining their Commander-in-Chief.
Neither option looks good for an administration that promised to keep America out of “endless wars” while simultaneously threatening to bomb Iran again if they restart their programme.
With Tehran already firing retaliatory missiles at US bases and threatening worse, the stage is set for an escalation nobody wants but everyone might stumble into.
The real question now isn’t whether Operation Midnight Hammer was a success – it’s whether anyone in Washington actually knows what success looks like anymore.
