Top Trump official calls US strikes on Iran ‘pointless’, says ‘deep state’ made the call; deletes post later

A top official in the Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday called the United States strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities “pointless” while also suggesting that the the decision was rather made by Washing DC's “deep state” – only to delete his claim later, a report in New York Post has mentioned.

Andrew Kloster, who is general counsel at the Office of Personnel Management, first called the US strikes on nuclear facilities of Iran “pointless” while reacting to a post on X and then shared a number of posts slamming the government policy of aiding Israel while downplaying the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran.

As soon as Donald Trump announced the US strikes in Iran, Andrew Kloster wrote: “I apologize and will never again doubt the power of the deep state.”

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Later, in response to a post on X that read, “If striking Iran runs the risk of WWIII, then Iran's nuclear sites being crushed seems a long-term benefit for the US,” Kloster replied, “I think it was just kind of pointless.”

Mint couldn't independently verify the X posts by Andrew Kloster

These remarks have came since a classified preliminary US intelligence report concluded that American strikes on Iran set back Tehran's nuclear program by just a few months – rather than destroying it as claimed by President Donald Trump and his administration.

US media on Tuesday cited people familiar with the Defense Intelligence Agency findings as saying the weekend strikes did not fully eliminate Iran's centrifuges or stockpile of enriched uranium.

The strikes sealed off entrances to some facilities without destroying underground buildings, according to the report.

Over the weekend, Donald Trump, who has so far asserted that Iran was making a nuclear bomb, ordered strikes on two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs.

After claiming to have been “destroying” the nuclear strikes, Donald Trump said they were a “spectacular military success”.

(With AFP inputs)