Hegseth fires Pentagon leader whose agency determined Iran strikes were less effective than Trump claimed
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a Pentagon leader whose agency determined June’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were less effective than President Donald Trump had claimed, according to multiple reports.
Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has been dismissed from his role, the Associated Press reported, citing a White House official and two unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
A DIA spokesperson told The Washington Post, which earlier reported on the firing, Kruse was no longer in charge of the agency and said his deputy, Christine Bordine, would become acting director.
The DIA had previously found Iran’s nuclear program had not been “fully obliterated” as Trump had touted.
The preliminary report, which was leaked to news outlets, stated the strikes had only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months.
The Trump administration had denied the assessment, which was first reported by CNN, calling it “flat-out wrong.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard later released “new intelligence” claiming Iran’s nuclear program had actually been set back “years.”
In a news conference following the June strikes, Hegseth lambasted the press for focusing on the preliminary assessment but did not offer any direct evidence of the destruction of Iranian nuclear facilities.
“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was an historically successful attack,” Hegseth said at the time.
Trump has a history of removing government officials whose data and analysis he disagrees with. Earlier this month, after a lousy jobs report, he fired Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, suggesting she could not be trusted with the data because former President Joe Biden nominated her.
The firing of the DIA head culminates a week of broad Trump administration changes to the intelligence community and shakeups to the military leadership.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence — which is responsible for coordinating the work of 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA — announced that it would slash its staff and budget.
The Pentagon announced this week that the Air Force’s top uniformed officer, General David Allvin, planned to retire two years early.
Hegseth and Trump have been aggressive in dismissing top military officials, often without formal explanation.
