A newly released photo shows Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard among other Trump administration officials in the Situation Room during the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites Saturday evening.
The rapid response X account for the Trump White House posted a photo on Sunday evening, nearly 24 hours after the strikes took place, showing Gabbard watching on as B-2 bombers and a U.S. submarine conducted “Operation Midnight Hammer,” the mission targeting the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan enrichment sites.
She is seated to the left of CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who was included in the original selection of photos released by the White House on Saturday night.
That earlier photo, however, was focused solely on Ratcliffe watching the strikes intently, with anyone to the left of him cut from the shot.
The release of Gabbard’s Situation Room photo follows earlier speculation that she was not in the facility at the time of the strikes, which was only heightened by President Donald Trump’s direct rebuttals last week of her intelligence assessments about Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
As recently as Friday, Trump told reporters that Gabbard was “wrong” when she told Congress that Iran “was not building a nuclear weapon.”
YES, IRAN WAS ON THE VERGE OF OBTAINING NUCLEAR WEAPONS
The White House released an initial batch of photos from the Situation Room on their X account Saturday night, all of which did not include Gabbard in the frame. Instead, pictured were Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and chief of staff Susie Wiles.
A White House official explained the earlier omission on Sunday by confirming Gabbard was present in the Situation Room, telling Fox News that she is a “key player.”
