Tulsi Gabbard, who is the US Director of National Intelligence, left no doubt when she testified before the US Congress earlier this year about Iran's nuclear program. The country is not building nuclear weapons, she told US lawmakers at the time, adding that Iran's supreme leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) has not authorized the resumption of its nuclear weapons program (which he suspended in 2003), even though the Islamic Republic has enriched uranium to very high levels.
US President Donald Trump, however, dismissed the US intelligence assessment on his flight back to Washington from Canada, where he left a day before the G7 summit to focus on the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. "I don't care what she said", Trump told reporters. He said Iran was "very close" to have a nuclear bomb.
Trump's statement brought him closer to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has described a nuclear-armed Iran as an imminent threat, than to his own intelligence chief. On Tuesday, Trump gathered the National Security Council, including Gabbard, in the White House Situation Room as he plotted his next steps.
Administration officials downplayed the disagreement between Trump and Gabbard, saying that uranium enrichment could lead to Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.
For her part, Gabbard accused the media of misinterpreting her earlier remarks, saying that "President Trump is saying the same thing I am". "We are on the same page," she stressed to CNN. When asked for comment, Gabbard's office referred to these statements.
In March, Gabbard told U.S. lawmakers that the intelligence community "continues to assert that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and that Supreme Leader (Ayatollah) Khamenei has not authorized the resumption of the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003." She also said the U.S. was closely monitoring Iran's nuclear program, noting that "the country's stockpile of enriched uranium is at its highest level and is unprecedented for a non-nuclear weapons state."
Recently, General Eric Kurila, head of U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM), testified before Congress that Iran could produce enough nuclear material for 10 weapons within three weeks. He did not say how long it would take to assemble the parts into a bomb.
A senior intelligence official said Trump had reason to be concerned because the country's uranium enrichment was exceeding what was needed for domestic purposes. Another senior administration official said that without actually having a nuclear weapon, Iran was as close to having one as possible. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing sensitive matters.
Trump's feud with Gabbard is a repeat of his feud with U.S. intelligence leaders during his first term, when he viewed them as part of the "deep state" that was undermining his agenda. Most notably, he sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018 when asked whether Moscow had interfered in the 2016 presidential election, saying Putin was "extremely strong and authoritative in his denials".
The latest rift on Iran is striking because Trump has fielded loyalists rather than establishment figures in his second administration. Gabbard, an Army veteran and former Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives (the lower house of Congress), was confirmed by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate (the upper house of Congress) by just a few votes because of her limited experience in intelligence and in running large organizations.
Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022 and supported Trump in last year's presidential election, spoke during a pre-scheduled closed-door budget hearing Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who is the top Democrat and vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee but is not a member of the Appropriations Committee, said he was unaware of any new information that would change the assessment of Iran's nuclear capabilities.
"Gabbard stated publicly in March that the Iranians are not actively pursuing a (nuclear) bomb," Warner said. "I have not seen anything in the latest intelligence that contradicts her statement," he said.
The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, has repeatedly warned that Iran has enough enriched uranium to make several nuclear bombs if it wanted to. Tehran, for its part, insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
An earlier intelligence report, prepared in November under then-Democratic President Joe Biden, also said that Iran "is not developing a nuclear weapon."
However, it said the country had "undertaken activities that better prepare it to produce one if it chooses to do so," such as increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium and operating more advanced centrifuges. The report did not include any estimates of the time frame in which a bomb could be created.
Trump's immigration agenda is another area where he has diverged from the intelligence assessments. He invoked the Alien Enemies Act, which predates the Civil War and was passed in 1798, to deport Venezuelan immigrants, claiming that the Transnational Crime Group "Tren de Aragua" from Venezuela was coordinating with authorities in Caracas. However, an intelligence assessment in April found no evidence of such a connection.
Gabbard fired two longtime intelligence officials who led the group that prepared the assessment in May, saying they were fired because of their opposition to Trump's dealings.
In response to these reports, the White House issued a statement from Gabbard supporting the president. "President Trump took necessary and historic action to protect our nation when he deported these aggressive terrorists from the "Tren de Aragua," the statement said. "Now that America is safer without these terrorists in our cities, deep state actors have resorted to using their propaganda arm to attack the president's successful policies," the text continues.
Translated from English: Simeon Tomov, BTA