Donald Trump has savaged CNN in a pair of furious Truth Social posts over his war with Iran.
The network, which featured non-stop coverage of the president’s backdown after Trump called off his threat to “obliterate” Iran Tuesday night, covered a statement released by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on the two-week ceasefire.
The statement claimed a humiliating defeat for Trump just hours after he had threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight.” The network aired the statement in the lead-up to Trump’s Truth Social complaints.
“The enemy, in its unfair, unlawful, and criminal war against the Iranian nation, has suffered an undeniable, historic, and crushing defeat,” the council statement read.
Host Erin Burnett held up a copy of the statement on air as well as discussing a shorter “official statement” from Iran’s Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, that Trump also shared on his social media.
CNN also posted an article in its live blog covering the statement with the headline, “Iran claims victory, says it forced US to accept 10-point plan.”
Other media organizations, including The New York Times, and PBS, also quoted the statement.
In his first Truth Social post targeting the network on Tuesday, Trump, 79, claimed that, “The alleged Statement put out by CNN World News is a FRAUD, as CNN well knows.” The president claimed the statement was linked to a “Fake News site” from Nigeria.
“Authorities are looking to determine whether or not a crime was committed on the issuance of the Fake CNN World Statement, or was it a sick rogue player?” he wrote.
Trump even claimed that “authorities are looking to determine whether or not a crime was committed” and that “CNN is being ordered to immediately withdraw this Statement with full apologies.”
He added, “Results of the investigation will be announced in the near future.”
The White House’s Rapid Response X account shared Trump’s post, adding, “This alleged statement by ‘Iran’ is a FRAUD! Correct immediately!” It also tagged several CNN accounts, including Kaitlan Collins.
The president was so enraged with CNN he doubled down with a second blast on Truth Social just before midnight.
“No one can believe that Fake News CNN put out a knowingly false and dangerous statement pretending it came from the upper levels of the Iranian Government,” Trump wrote. “It didn’t! ”
Trump claimed the headline “was totally made up” and alleged it had been posted for the “purpose of, perhaps, inflaming a very delicate situation.”
He added, “CNN just got caught cheating - A very dangerous thing to do!”
In a statement to the Daily Beast after Trump’s original post, a CNN spokesperson backed its reporting, adding that “the statement in question was obtained by CNN from Iranian officials and reported on multiple Iranian state media outlets. We received the statement from specific official Iranian spokespeople who are known to us.”
CNN reporter Matthew Chance clarified on air Tuesday night that multiple statements were sent by Iran.
“There’s a very short one from the Iranian foreign ministry basically saying, look, we’re going to observe a ceasefire and open the Strait of Hormuz,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, citing Araghchi.
“The second document, the one apparently President Trump seems to be objecting to, is the one sent to us by The Supreme National Security Council of Iran.” Chance said. “That’s Iran’s highest military body. And that’s a lot more aggressive. And it goes into a lot more detail about what that 10-point plan to end the war from Iran actually involves.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
FCC chair Brendan Carr also backed Trump’s post, complaining about “more outrageous conduct from CNN.”
“Fake news is bad enough for the country, but pushing out a hoax headline in such a sensitive national security moment as this requires accountability,” he posted on X. “Iran put out an official statement that simply cannot be squared with the one CNN’s false headline attributes to them. Time for change at CNN.”
The FCC has no power over CNN as it is a cable news channel, not a broadcast station. CNN is part of the Warner Bros. Discovery group, who are in the process of being acquired by MAGA-friendly billionaire David Ellison of Paramount Skydance.
