U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday likened the recent strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities to the end of World War II, insisting they caused massive damage despite inconclusive intelligence assessments.
His comments followed reports by Reuters and other media outlets on Tuesday revealing that a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report had assessed that the strikes had set back Iran's nuclear program by just a few months, despite Trump and administration officials saying it had been obliterated.
"The intelligence was ... very inconclusive," Trump told reporters while meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte ahead of a summit in The Hague.
"The intelligence says, 'We don't know, it could have been very severe.' That's what the intelligence says. So I guess that's correct, but I think we can take the 'we don't know.' It was very severe. It was obliteration," Trump added.
Trump has an uneasy relationship with the U.S. intelligence community and the success of the strikes is politically critical to him.
