Secretary Hegseth on Thursday criticized media outlets for their coverage of President Trump’s airstrikes on Iran, calling out “biased leaks to biased publications” and saying the press simply can’t tolerate the president’s successes.

The mission, which included dropping a dozen 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs into three of Iran’s largest nuclear strongholds, has been touted as a major victory by Mr. Trump. However, a leaked report from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency after the airstrikes suggested that they only delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions by a few months, and speculated that the enriched uranium had been moved prior to the bombing. 

During an early morning press conference, Mr. Hegseth dismissed the leaked assessment, criticizing it as premature and lacking input from higher-level intelligence agencies. “It is preliminary. It points out it is not coordinated with the intelligence community at all; there is low confidence in this report, and there are gaps,” he said, adding that the leak was “designed to spin success into failure.”

Taking direct aim at the media, especially the New York Times, which first put out the “low confidence” report, the secretary said, “We’re urging caution about premising entire stories on biased leaks to biased publications to try to make things look bad.”

“There’s been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment. I’ve had a chance to read it all. Every outlet has breathlessly reported on a preliminary assessment from DIA,” Mr. Hegseth said. “It’s in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump. You want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy of the strikes. You have to hope they were not effective.”

The defense secretary further accused news outlets and leakers of undermining the president and the military’s efforts. “Classified information is leaked or peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad,” he said. “You are undermining the success of incredible pilots and incredible defenders who accomplished their mission, setting back a nuclear program in ways other presidents would have dreamed.”

Mr. Hegseth, citing the United Nations, Israeli, and Iranian officials talking about severe damage to the nuclear facilities, said the mission was “historically successful,” noting the strikes resulted in a cease-fire and effectively ended the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran. “President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history, and it was a resounding success,” he said.

As to the effectiveness of the strikes, he said, “Anyone with two eyes, some ears, and a brain can recognize that kind of firepower with that specificity at that location and others is gonna have a devastating effect.” Mr. Hegsesth added that the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Effie Defrin, announced that “Operation Midnight Hammer” had set back the nuclear program by several years. “I repeat: It has been set back years,” he said.

Mr. Trump has also blasted the media for what he says is an erroneous report. He followed up on Thursday with a social media post, saying, “Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong. Let’s see what happens?” 

In a post after Thursday’s Pentagon briefing, Mr. Trump said, “The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!”

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, who also appeared at the Pentagon briefing, showed a video of a graphic depicting ventilation shafts at Fordow, Iran’s largest nuclear site. He said six bunker busters were used on each side of the facility to open the ventilation shaft and then penetrate the target. The video showed widespread destruction.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday responded for the first time to the strikes, denouncing them as “showmanship” and claiming they achieved “nothing significant.”

“Anyone who heard Trump’s remarks could tell there was a different reality behind his words. They could do nothing,” Mr. Khamenei said, vowing that Iran would not yield to its adversaries.  

In one fiery moment during the Pentagon briefing, an unidentified female reporter said, “Why didn’t you acknowledge the female pilots that also participated in this mission? The early messages that you sent out only congratulated the boys.”

“So when I say something like our boys and bombers — see, this is the kind of thing the press does, right?” Mr. Hegseth said. “Of course, the chairman mentioned a female bomber pilot. That’s fantastic. She’s fantastic, she’s a hero. I want more female bomber pilots. I hope the men and women of our country sign up to do such brave and audacious things.”

He added: “But when you spin it as — because I say our boys and bombers as a common phrase, I’ll keep saying things like that, whether they’re men or women, very proud of that female pilot, just like I’m very proud of those male pilots and I don’t care if it’s a male or a female in that cockpit and the American people don’t care but it’s the obsession with race and gender in this department that’s changed priorities and we don’t do that anymore. We don’t play your little games.”