President Donald Trump claimed that he's heard a "rumor" about the New York Times and CNN "firing" reporters over coverage of strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in a post shared on his Truth Social account Thursday (June 26) morning.
"Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong. Lets see what happens?" Trump wrote.
The president's post came about 10 hours after he had bashed CNN in an earlier post shared Wednesday (June 25) night.
"FAKE NEWS CNN IS SO DISGUSTING AND INCOMPETENT. SOME OF THE DUMBEST ANCHORS IN THE BUSINESS!"
Trump had also teased that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would hold a press conference at the Pentagon Thursday morning claiming there would be "irrefutable" proof that the outlets lied about damage inflicted by the airstrikes on Iran.
“These Patriots were very upset! After 36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory, they landed, they knew the Success was LEGENDARY, and then, two days later, they started reading Fake News by CNN and The Failing New York Times. They felt terribly!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Fortunately for them and, as usual, solely for the purpose of demeaning PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, the Fake News (Times and CNN) lied and totally misrepresented the Facts, none of which they had (because it was too soon, there were no Facts out there yet!).”
“The News Conference will prove both interesting and irrefutable. Enjoy!” he added.
Hegseth accused the press of having "to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes" due to a bias against Trump and "spinning" leaked information during the press conference.
"Because you cheer against Trump so hard - it’s in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump, because you want him not to be successful so bad – you have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes. You have to hope that maybe they weren’t effective," he said via the Guardian.
CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC and the Associated Press had all confirmed, ""the early findings conclude that [Trump's] strikes over the weekend set back Iran's nuclear program by only a few months," rather than destroy it as he claimed, as of Wednesday (June 25).