Donald Trump called CNN and other news networks “LOSERS” in a late-night Truth Social post Monday, accusing journalists of refusing to give US military pilots proper credit for bombing Iran’s nuclear sites last summer.
The outburst came after CNN’s Anderson Cooper hosted a segment questioning whether the United States could realistically recover Iran’s remaining highly enriched uranium. Both guests on the program described such a mission as extraordinarily complex and potentially requiring thousands of ground troops, which appeared to set Trump off.
According to Fox News, Trump posted: “Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran. Therefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process. Fake News CNN, and other corrupt Media Networks and Platforms, fail to give our great aviators the credit they deserve — always trying to demean and belittle — LOSERS!!!”
What CNN actually reported
The CNN segment that sparked Trump’s anger featured two national security voices who painted a grim picture of any uranium extraction attempt. National security analyst Alex Plitsas told Cooper the operation would require a large blocking force to protect the site while specialists worked inside tunnels that have already been heavily damaged. He called it “incredibly complex” and “highly risky.”
Andrew Weber, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs and Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks, went further. He told Cooper it would be “next to impossible” to pull off without a massive troop presence. “To do it in a non-permissive environment as a special military operation would be extraordinarily risky,” Weber said. “The time on target you would need would probably be days or even weeks, and you’d have to defend your personnel inside Iran.”
Weber had also appeared the night before on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” where he drew a comparison to a 1990s mission he was involved in to retrieve highly enriched uranium left behind in Kazakhstan after the fall of the Soviet Union. He told the program that Iran would be an entirely different challenge, and that thousands of US troops would likely be needed.
As noted by Mediaite, the outburst also followed Trump’s claim last week that Iran had agreed to hand over its enriched uranium — a statement that neither Tehran nor any international intermediary has confirmed. Iranian officials have consistently insisted on their “nuclear rights” and have not publicly agreed to surrender any material.
The bigger dispute over the Iran strike
The debate over what remains of Iran’s uranium stockpile connects to a larger, ongoing argument about how effective Operation Midnight Hammer actually was. The operation, carried out in June 2025, sent seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers against Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, supported by over 125 aircraft. Trump has repeatedly insisted the strikes fully “obliterated” those sites.
Critics and independent analysts have questioned that claim, pointing to reports that some uranium may have survived. The White House has defended the mission multiple times since. Retired General David Petraeus, appearing Monday on Fox News, added a cautionary note from the other side of the debate, warning that any ground operation to retrieve uranium would be “a very, very tall order” with potentially “substantial” casualties.
Iran has also pushed back hard on how Trump has characterized events since the ceasefire. As tensions remain high, Iran has accused Donald Trump of making seven specific false claims about the conflict since the Strait of Hormuz reopened, and Trump has made clear he is keeping military options open, threatening to resume bombing if negotiations fall apart.
