Trump Raves About Pete Hegseth Presser Torching the Media: One of the ‘Most Confirming News Conferences I Have Ever Seen!’
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
President Donald Trump raved about the press conference from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Thursday morning — calling it one of the “most confirming” news conferences he’s ever seen.
In a post on Truth Social Thursday morning, the president delighted in the 45-minute session in which Hegseth lashed out at the media numerous times — accusing them of wanting Saturday’s U.S. military strike in Iran to have failed.
“You, the press corps … cheer against Trump so hard — like in your DNA and in your blood, to cheer against Trump,” Hegseth said. “You want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy of the strikes. … You have to hope they were not effective. Let’s take half truths, spun information, leaked information and then spin it, spin it in every way we can to try to cause doubt and manipulate the public mind over whether or not our brave pilots were successful.”
Trump, in his Truth post, lauded Hegseth’s professionalism.
“One of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen!” Trump wrote. “The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!”
On Wednesday, Trump claimed Hegseth’s news conference would provide “irrefutable” proof that CNN and The New York Times “totally misrepresented the facts” surrounding the impact of the strike on Iran. Those outlets reported on a preliminary assessment from the intelligence community which said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed in the attack. Trump has said the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities. General Dan Caine — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was alongside Hegseth at Thursday’s news conference — was asked whether the facilities had been obliterated, and deferred to the intelligence community.
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