During a press briefing on Wednesday, Parnell informed reporters that the Department of Defense has assessed the impact of recent events at the Iranian nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, concluding that these facilities have been completely destroyed.
Parnell elaborated on the airstrikes authorized by President Donald Trump, which were aimed at crippling Iran’s nuclear capabilities. According to his statement reported by The Hill, these actions have set back the Islamic State’s nuclear program by approximately one to two years.
LIVE: Chief Pentagon Spokesman @SeanParnellATSD holds a news briefing at the Pentagon. https://t.co/WAs0CRqfmD
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) July 2, 2025
When further questioned by a reporter regarding this assessment, Parnell clarified, “We are estimating that their program has been set back by likely closer to two years.”
“We believe, and certainly, all of the intelligence that we’ve seen has led us to believe that Iran ‘s-those facilities especially have been completely obliterated,” Parnell continued, while noting that the assessment will continue.
The comments backed up Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s, who recently excoriated the media for “releasing leaked classified data to the public and creating a false narrative that the mission was less successful than had been claimed,” as RedState wrote.
“‘Maybe the way the Trump administration is representative isn’t true,'” Hegseth continued, suggesting this is the mindset of the journalism industry.
“So 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 mind, the public mind, over whether or not our brave pilots were successful.”
Later, Hegesth criticized the media for not reporting on the men and women who “carried out a dangerous 36-hour flight through enemy territory,” RedState noted.
“There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that because of the hatred of this press corps are undermined because people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn’t successful. It’s irresponsible.”
President Trump has praised the mission, touting that the US had obliterated the Islamic State’s key enrichment facilities. He also slammed the fake news for its reporting, claiming the operation wasn’t a success.
In a post on Monday on his Truth Social, the president reacted to reports on CNN and other news organizations that appeared to downplay the success of the US strikes on several Iranian nuclear sites when they used language like “partially destroyed” to describe the operation.
It came after Trump’s post announcing that the facilities had been obliterated.
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 06.23.25 02:10 PM EST pic.twitter.com/0edCdYvSqc
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) June 23, 2025
“The sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it,” Trump’s post read. “Only the Fake News would say anything different in order to try and demean, as much as possible — and even they say they were ‘pretty well destroyed!'”
“Working especially hard on this falsehood is Allison [Anderson] Cooper of Fake News CNN, Dumb Brian L. Roberts, Chairman of ‘Con’cast, Jonny [Jonathan] Karl of ABC Fake News, and always, the Losers of, again, Concast’s [Comcast] NBC Fake News,” the president added. “It never ends with the sleazebags in the Media, and that’s why their Ratings are at an ALL TIME LOW — ZERO CREDIBILITY!”
Say it with me, “Trump was right again!”
