Report: Intercepted Iranian Call Downplays Damage By U.S. Strikes

You can expect ketchup to be flung at the White House today as U.S. intel reportedly intercepted communications between senior Iranian officials discussing the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear program, saying the attack was less devastating than expected, according to four different sources.

Breaking news: U.S. intelligence obtained private communication among Iranian officials, discussing this month’s military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and remarking that the attack was less devastating than they had expected.

[image or embed] — The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) June 29, 2025 at 10:14 AM

From the Washington Post:

The communication, intended to be private, included Iranian government officials speculating as to why the strikes directed by President Donald Trump were not as destructive and extensive as they had anticipated, these people said.

Like some others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

The intercepted signals intelligence is the latest preliminary information offering a more complicated picture than the one conveyed by the president, who has said the operation “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump has been raging on social media all week after a preliminary report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, estimated the military strikes did not “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear program but set it back some months.

Trump has been calling the news organizations who reported on the assessment (that has been acknowledged by the White House as real) “scum” and threatening lawsuits.

Read more here.

Trump on Iran’s nuclear capabilities: “It’s gone for years … CNN is scum. MSDNC is scum. The New York Times is scum. They’re bad people. They’re sick. And what they’ve done is they’ve tried to make this unbelievable victory into something less.” pic.twitter.com/2p6k26xVsJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 25, 2025

BREAKING: U.S. intel suggests strikes only set Iran’s nuclear program back by months.

Another Trump failure.pic.twitter.com/0zk9zRpF3K — Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) June 24, 2025