Wednesday briefing: Poll on Iran strikes; New York's Zohran Mamdani; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Bezos wedding; and more
U.S. strikes set Iran's nuclear program back by a few months, an initial report said.
There was a major upset in the New York City mayoral primary.
Congress is moving toward passing Trump's massive tax and immigration bill.
Florida is building an 'Alligator Alcatraz' for migrant detainees.
More extreme heat is expected across the country today.
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Washington Post
24 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Trump compares Iran strike to Hiroshima atomic bombing
Politics Trump compares strike on Iran to Hiroshima atomic bombing June 25, 2025 | 3:16 PM GMT President Donald Trump compared the impact of the U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear enrichment site to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima during World War II.
The Hill
26 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump denies Iranians moved nuclear materials before US strikes
President Trump on Wednesday maintained that nuclear materials were not moved prior to U.S. strikes on Iranian facilities, despite an internal preliminary assessment that indicated otherwise. 'We're just the opposite. We think we hit them so hard and so fast, they didn't get to move,' Trump said during a press conference at the NATO summit when asked if U.S. intelligence was able to assess whether materials were relocated from the sites. 'If you knew about that material, it's very hard and very dangerous to move. It's called—many people, they call it dust— but it's very, very heavy. It's very, very hard to move. And they were way down. You know, they're 30 stories down. They're literally 30 to 35 stories down in the ground,' the president added. Trump's remarks came as he and his top national security brass hit back at his administration's initial assessment that damage to the three nuclear facilities only set the Iranians back a few months when it comes to their nuclear program. Trump has insisted it has actually set it back decades. Whether Iranians managed to move some nuclear materials ahead of the US strikes appears to be in question. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has said the agency does not know the location of 900 pounds of enriched uranium from the sites. 'We do not have information of the whereabouts of this material. So, this is why I'm asking. We are making an assumption, which is not speculative or pure speculation, because Iran officially told me, we are going to be taking protective measures, which may or may not include moving around this material,' Grossi said on FOX News Channel's 'The Story.' He added, 'So it is quite obvious, you are asking me about it, that there is a question there. Where is this? So, the way to ascertain that is to allow the inspection activity to resume as soon as possible. And I think this will be for the benefit of all.' Vice President JD Vance on Sunday, just hours after the U.S strikes, suggested at the time that officials are working to handle Iran's uranium batch after the U.S. strikes. 'We are going to work in the coming weeks to ensure that we do something with that fuel and that's one of the things that we're going to have conversations with the Iranians about,' Vance told ABC's 'This Week.' Earlier Wednesday, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly hit back on reporting on the administration's internal assessment, insisting that 'the site is obliterated.' He opened his press conference by reading a statement from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, that said the strikes 'set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.' 'This is an official letter and they're very serious people as you know,' Trump said.
Fox News
26 minutes ago
- Fox News
Trump, Hegseth seethe at 'fake news' media for doubting US strikes obliterated Iranian nuclear sites: 'Scum'
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeth railed against the "fake news" media during a NATO summit press conference for casting doubt that the U.S. strikes on Iran obliterated the country's nuclear program. "A statement came in from the Atomic Energy Commission of Israel," Trump said during a Wednesday press conference from The Hague as he wrapped up his NATO summit trip in the Netherlands. "They're very serious people, as you know." "'The devastating U.S. strike on Fordow destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility totally inoperable,'" Trump read from the letter. "'It was devastated. We assessed that the American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities had set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons for many years to come. This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.'" Trump took aim at U.S. media outlets for initially casting doubt that the strikes he ordered on Iran Saturday evening were not as devastating as the administration initially reported, calling outlets such as CNN "fake news" and slamming them for "maligning" the U.S. military by doubting the ferocity of the strikes. "I just want to thank our pilots," Trump said. "You know, they were maligned and treated very bad, demeaned by fake news CNN, which is back there, believe it or not, wasting time, wasting time. Nobody's watching them. So they just wasted a lot of time. wasting my time. And the New York Times, they put out a story that, 'well, maybe they were hit, but it wasn't so bad that they ended the war.'" The president added that he received a call that the pilots who deployed from Missouri to Iran for the strikes were "devastated" due to certain media outlets attempting to downplay the success of the mission. "Do you know, I got a call from Missouri? Great state that I won three times by a lot. And I got a call that the pilots and people on the plane were devastated because (the media) were trying to minimize the attack. And they all said it was hit, 'but oh, but we don't think it was really maybe hit that badly.' And they were devastated," he said. "They put their lives on the line and then they have, and I'm not referring to you, but real scum. Real scum come out and write reports that are as negative as they could possibly be," Trump continued. Hegseth, who joined Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the summit, also slammed CNN and the New York Times during the press conference. Hegseth argued that such media outlets work "to find a way to spin" the news. "There's a reason the president calls out fake news for what it is. These pilots, these refuelers, these fighters, these air defenders. The skill and the courage it took to go into enemy territory flying 36 hours on behalf of the American people and the world to take out a nuclear program is beyond what anyone in this audience can fathom," Hegseth said. "And then the instinct, the instinct of CNN, the instinct of the New York Times, is to try to find a way to spin it for their own political reasons, to try to hurt President Trump or our country. They don't care what the troops think. They don't care what the world thinks. They want to spin it to try to make him look bad based on a leak. Of course, we've all seen plenty of leakers and what a leakers do? They have agendas. And what do they do? Do they share the whole information or just the part that they want to introduce?" Trump announced Saturday evening in a surprise Truth Social post that the U.S. military had successfully executed strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, saying in an address to the nation later that night that the facilities were "completely and totally obliterated." "For 40 years, Iran has been saying, 'Death to America. Death to Israel.' They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs," Trump said in his address Saturday with the trio standing behind him. "That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people, and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate, in particular." "Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said. "And Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier." A handful of legacy and liberal media outlets attempted to cast doubt that the strikes truly devastated the Iranian facilities, including CNN publishing an exclusive Tuesday claiming "US strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites," while the New York Times reported the Fordow nuclear facility was "severely damaged" but not "destroyed." White House officials, including Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, have slammed such reports as "fake news." "This alleged 'assessment' is flat-out wrong and was classified as "top secret" but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community," Leavitt posted to X on Tuesday of the CNN report. "The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration."
