Trump touts success of Iran strikes and attack’s initial damage assessments during 23rd week in office

President Donald Trump continued to brag about the success of the U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities and visited the Netherlands for the NATO summit this week. 

The U.S. launched strikes late Saturday targeting key Iranian nuclear facilities, which involved more than 125 U.S. aircraft, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters Sunday.

Following the strikes, Trump said in an address to the nation that the mission left the nuclear sites “completely and totally obliterated.” But days later, a leaked report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, published by CNN and the New York Times, cast doubt on those claims, saying that the strikes had only set back Iran’s nuclear program by several months.

TRUMP WOULD STRIKE IRAN ‘WITHOUT QUESTION’ IF IT RESTARTS NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM 

Meanwhile, the U.S., Israel and Iran’s Foreign Ministry have all said the three nuclear sites that U.S. forces struck have encountered massive damage.

Still, Trump has said he won’t hesitate to launch additional strikes against Iran – should Tehran seek to beef up its nuclear program again. 

Here’s also what happened this week: 

NATO Summit

Trump attended the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian leader said in a post on X on Wednesday that the two “covered all the truly important issues” as the U.S. has sought to broker a peace deal to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

TRUMP PRAISED FOR GETTING NATO ALLIES TO BOLSTER DEFENSE SPENDING: ‘REALLY STAGGERING’

NATO allies – all but Spain – agreed Wednesday to boost defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.

Trump has long advocated for NATO allies to ramp up defense spending to between 2% and 5% GDP – and has made it clear that European nations need to shoulder greater responsibility for the security of their continent.

‘Big, beautiful bill’ event

Trump pressed lawmakers to get his sweeping tax and domestic policy bill to the finish line on Thursday, labeling the measure the “single-most important piece of border legislation ever to cross the floor of Congress.” 

TRUMP SAYS ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL’ BILL ‘MUST’ MEET DEADLINE AS SOME REPUBLICANS WAVER

“This is the ultimate codification of our agenda to – very simply, a phrase that’s been used pretty well by me over the past 10 years, but maybe even before that – make America great again,” Trump said at a “One, Big, Beautiful Event” at the White House on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, Republicans are scrambling to reform and pass the measure ahead of Trump’s July 4 deadline, following Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s determination Thursday that several Medicaid reforms in the sweeping tax passage did not follow Senate rules and must be removed.