No, Tulsi Gabbard Did Not Say Iran Was Close to Having Nuclear Weapons

President Donald Trump caused a stir Tuesday when he publicly disregarded congressional testimony that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard gave in March. When asked about Iran’s nuclear capacities, Trump told reporters while aboard Air Force One that the Islamic Republic of Iran was “very close” to obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

When asked about Gabbard’s Annual Threat Assessment (ATA) testimony she delivered to Congress March 25, in which she said the U.S. intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon,” Trump appeared to disagree with Gabbard’s assessment. “I don’t care what she said,” Trump said. “I think they were very close to having it.”

Later that day, Gabbard claimed that her congressional testimony was fully aligned with Trump’s comments, and blamed the media for what she indicated was an inaccurate portrayal of her March comments. “President Trump was saying the same thing that I said in my annual threat assessment back in March,” she said. “Unfortunately, too many people in the media don’t care to actually read what I said.”

A review of Gabbard’s testimony shows that Trump was not “saying the same thing” she did in her threat assessment. At no point did Gabbard communicate that Iran was “very close” to having a nuclear weapon. Instead, she explicitly cited intelligence reports indicating Iran was not building one. Here’s the update on Iran that Gabbard provided to Congress.

Iran continues to seeks expansion of its influence in the Middle East, despite the degradation to its proxies and defenses during the Gaza conflict. Iran has developed and maintains ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and UAVs, including systems capable of striking U.S. targets and allies in the region. Tehran has shown a willingness to use these weapons, including during a 2020 attack on U.S. forces in Iraq and in attacks against Israel in April and October 2024. Iran’s cyber operations and capabilities also present a serious threat to U.S. networks and data.

The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003. The IC is closely monitoring if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program. In the past year, we have seen an erosion of a decades-long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision-making apparatus. Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.

Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for a U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming, and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorist and militant actors, which it refers to as its “Axis of Resistance.” Although weakened, this collection of actors still presents a wide range of threats, including to Israel’s population, U.S. forces deployed in Iraq and Syria, and to U.S. and international military and commercial shipping and transit.

When asked to specify which of Gabbard’s comments were supposed to communicate that Iran was close to getting a nuclear weapon, an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), as well as a White House spokesman The Dispatch Fact Check reached out to separately, stated, “All the points DNI Gabbard made during the ATA hearing outside of the singular statement that ‘Iran is not building’ a nuclear weapon, point to the country being very close to building one.” 

However, the material the ODNI official and White House spokesman supplied to back up that assertion was inaccurate. In separate exchanges, they provided The Dispatch Fact Check four quotes they said were taken from Gabbard’s full ATA testimony. But the first two snippets of the provided text were remarks from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, not Gabbard. 

“The supreme leader of Iran now faces a stark choice thanks to President Trump,” Cotton said at the March 25 hearing, which the ODNI official and the White House spokesman misattributed to Gabbard. “The supreme leader can fully dismantle his nuclear program or he can have it dismantled for him.” The second wrongly attributed quote: “Iran’s nuclear program continues apace.”

Moreover, neither of the two quotes correctly attributed to Gabbard’s ATA testimony shows that she warned Iran was “very close” to building a nuclear weapon. Instead, Gabbard notes that nuclear weapons advocates working within the Iranian regime have likely become more emboldened to speak out, and that Iran’s uranium enrichment program is drawing concern. “In the past year, we’ve seen an erosion of a decades long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision making apparatus,” Gabbard said. She later said in that same testimony that “Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.”

As her testimony clearly shows, Gabbard said Iran was “not building a nuclear weapon” and that the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “has not authorized the nuclear weapons program” he said he ended more than 20 years ago. At no point does Gabbard indicate that Iran was working to create nuclear weapons, never mind “very close” to building one. Gabbard even adds, “The [intelligence community] is closely monitoring if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program.”

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.