June 20, 2025 – Israel-Iran conflict

Hours after President Donald Trump said publicly that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was “wrong” in her assessment of Iran’s efforts on obtaining a nuclear weapon, Gabbard asserted on X that media outlets were unfairly sowing division between her and Trump.

“The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division,” Gabbard said in a post to social media that highlighted video of her prior testimony on the issue on Capitol Hill.

She continued, “America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly. President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree.”

What she testified: On Capitol Hill in March, Gabbard had testified that the US intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”

More context: CNN has previously reported that US intelligence assessed Iran was up to three years away from being able to produce and deliver a nuclear weapon to a target of its choosing, according to four people familiar with the assessment.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, a top international watchdog, said last week that Iran had amassed enough uranium enriched at levels just below weapons-grade to potentially make nine nuclear bombs, which it termed “a matter of serious concern.”

The challenge for Iran is producing not merely a crude nuclear weapon — which experts say Iran could potentially do within the space of months if it decided to — but also producing a working delivery system, which could take much longer.