WASHINGTON (TNND) — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is set to host what President Donald Trump described as “a major news conference” following U.S. airstrikes on a nuclear site in Iran during the weekend.
Trump said the briefing is scheduled for Thursday at 8 a.m. EST at the Pentagon, adding that Hegseth will be joined by military representatives.
The president shared the update Wednesday evening on social media, saying the conference will be a way “to fight for the Dignity of our Great American Pilots” after CNN and the New York Times issued reports claiming that the bombing caused minimal damage to Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities.
These Patriots were very upset! After 36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory, they landed, they knew the Success was LEGENDARY, and then, two days later, they started reading Fake News by CNN and The Failing New York Times,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.They felt terribly!,” he added. “Fortunately for them and, as usual, solely for the purpose of demeaning PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, the Fake News (Times and CNN) lied and totally misrepresented the Facts, none of which they had (because it was too soon, there were no Facts out there yet!). The News Conference will prove both interesting and irrefutable. Enjoy!”
Trump also posted the news on X, with Hegseth sharing the post.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump doubled down on the destruction caused at the sites, as he shared multiple posts on Truth Social.
He previously wrote that Israel “stated that the Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED!”
The president also added that “a letter from the Atomic Energy Commission of Israel states that “the devastating U.S. strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility totally inoperable.”
Trump shared the initial posts as he attended the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands. Just a few days prior, the U.S. initiated “Operation Midnight Hammer.”
Seven B-2 bombers flew 7,000 miles from Missouri to Iran, deploying 14 GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs, marking the first combat use of the powerful munitions.
Concurrently, a U.S. Navy submarine launched 24 Tomahawk missiles at Isfahan, resulting in the damage to the targeted nuclear sites.
Israel’s tally of the war damage it wrought on Iran includes the targeted killings of at least 14 scientists, an unprecedented attack on the brains behind Iran’s nuclear program that outside experts say can only set it back, not stop it.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Israel’s ambassador to France said the killings will make it “almost” impossible for Iran to build weapons from whatever nuclear infrastructure and material may have survived nearly two weeks of Israeli airstrikes and massive bunker-busting bombs dropped by U.S. stealth bombers.
“The fact that the whole group disappeared is basically throwing back the program by a number of years, by quite a number of years,” Ambassador Joshua Zarka said.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.