Posted on 08/22/25
| News Source: Arutz-7
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a US general whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of damage to Iranian nuclear sites from US strikes angered President Donald Trump, The Associated Press reported on Friday, citing two sources and a White House official.
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The firing is the latest upheaval in US military and intelligence leadership, coming just months after the preliminary assessment was leaked to the media.
The leaked report, which was carried by several media outlets including CNN and the New York Times, claimed that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back only a few months by the US strikes, directly contradicting assertions from President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
An angry Trump rejected the reports and wrote on Truth Social at the time, “Fake news CNN, together with the failing New York Times, have teamed up in an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history. The nuclear sites in Iran are completely destroyed! Both the Times and CNN are getting slammed by the public!”
In late July, Trump called on CNN to apologize for publishing the intelligence report, pointing out comments made by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in an interview with Fox News. Araghchi acknowledged in that interview that US airstrikes caused “serious” damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In a news conference following the June strikes, Hegseth had lambasted the press for what he claimed was an anti-military bias, but did not offer direct evidence of the destruction of Iranian nuclear production facilities.
The firing of Kruse follows other recent shifts in U.S. military leadership, including the early retirement of Air Force Gen. David Allvin, and budget cuts to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.