‘I Don’t Care What She Said!’ Trump Rebukes His Own DNI Tulsi Gabbard, Insists Iran ‘Very Close’ to Getting a Nuke

(Screenshot/J. Scott Applewhite/AP photo)

President Donald Trump has rejected the assessment of his own Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Iran’s nuclear capability.

Speaking with reporters during an Air Force One gaggle in the early morning hours on Tuesday en route to Washington, the president insisted that Iran was “very close” to building a nuclear weapon. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed Trump on the subject — reminding him about Gabbard’s assessment, earlier this year, that Iran was not trying to build a nuke.

“You’ve always said that you don’t believe Iran should be able to have a nuclear weapon,” Collins said. “But how close do you personally think that they were to getting one.”

“Very close,” Trump said.

“Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon.

“I don’t care what she said,” Trump replied — shaking his head. “I think they were very close to having one.

In her opening statement to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on March 26, Gabbard relayed the intelligence community assessment that Iran was not constructing a nuclear weapon.

“The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,” Gabbard said. “We continue to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program.”

Gabbard’s views on Iran have previously clashed with Trump’s. An unearthed 2020 post on X from Gabbard has gone viral in recent days — in which Gabbard said: “To all who voted for Trump bc of his antiwar rhetoric, it’s time to realize he lied to u.”

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