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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was inside the Situation Room Saturday when the U.S. military launched successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, a White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital Sunday morning.
A White House official confirmed Gabbard was in the room Saturday and that she is a “key player” on President Donald Trump’s national security team.
Speculation had mounted there was a rift between Gabbard and Trump after the president told the media Gabbard was “wrong” about intelligence on Iran back in March when she testified before the Senate that the nation was not actively building a nuclear weapon.
Photos of the Situation Room released Saturday evening did not show Gabbard present alongside Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other administration officials. The photos, however, did not include wide shots showing the entire room or each individual present, with the White House confirming the intelligence chief was present.
Trump and Gabbard appeared at odds earlier in June, when the president was asked about Gabbard’s testimony before the Senate in March, when she reported intelligence showed Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon. Trump told the media June 16 he did not “care” what Gabbard had to say in previous testimony, arguing he believed Iran was close to building a nuke.
‘SHE’S WRONG’: TRUMP SAYS TULSI GABBARD INCORRECT ABOUT IRAN NOT HAVING NUCLEAR WEAPON CAPABILITIES
“You’ve always said that you don’t believe Iran should be able to have a nuclear weapon,” a reporter asked Trump while aboard Air Force One on June 16. “But how close do you personally think that they were to getting one?”
“Very close,” Trump responded.
Then again Friday, Trump said Gabbard was “wrong” after she reported that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon.
“My intelligence community is wrong,” Trump said when asked about the intelligence community previously reporting that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon.
FLARING IRAN NUCLEAR CRISIS PROVIDES FIRST MAJOR TEST FOR PIVOTAL TRUMP TRIO
When Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March, she delivered a statement on behalf of the intelligence community that included testimony that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon.
“Iran’s cyber operations and capabilities also present a serious threat to U.S. networks and data,” Gabbard told the committee March 26.
The 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,” she said. She did add that “Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.”
“Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorist actors, which it refers to as its axis of resistance,” she warned.
VANCE DEFENDS GABBARD AS ‘CRITICAL PART’ OF TRUMP TEAM AFTER PRESIDENT DISMISSED IRAN NUKE THREAT COMMENTS
However, as critics picked apart Gabbard’s past comments, the White House stressed to Fox Digital that Gabbard and Trump were closely aligned on Iran.
A White House official told Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon that Trump and Gabbard are closely aligned and that the distinction being raised between Gabbard’s March testimony and Trump’s remarks that Iran is “very close” to getting a nuclear weapon is one without a difference.
TRUMP BLOWS OFF GABBARD DOWNPLAYING IRAN NUKE THREAT, BUT WH STILL SAYS PRESIDENT AND INTEL CHIEF ARE IN SYNC
The official noted that Gabbard had underscored in her March testimony that Iran had the resources to potentially build a nuclear weapon. Her March testimony reflected intelligence she had received that Iran was not building a weapon at the time but that the country could do so based on the resources it amassed for such an endeavor.
Gabbard took to social media and blasted the media for “intentionally” taking her March testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee “out of context.”
“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 Friday post on X, accompanied by a video clip of her March testimony to Congress.
“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,” she wrote. “President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree.”
TRUMP ADDRESSES NATION ON ‘SPECTACULAR MILITARY SUCCESS’ OF US STRIKES ON IRANIAN NUCLEAR FACILITIES
Trump announced in a Saturday evening Truth Social post that the U.S. military had carried out strikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran, obliterating them. Trump held an address to the nation later Saturday night, describing the strikes as wildly successful and backing Iran into a corner to make a peace deal.
“A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan,” Trump said from the White House on Saturday evening. “Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number-one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success.”
“For 40 years, Iran has been saying, ‘Death to America. Death to Israel.’ They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs,” Trump continued. “That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people, and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for any additional comment on the Sunday strikes, but did not immediately receive a reply.
Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
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