The US president has called out Natasha Bertrand for a report questioning the effectiveness of America's recent strikes on Iran

US President Donald Trump has demanded that CNN Pentagon correspondent Natasha Bertrand be fired for questioning the effectiveness of the recent US military action in Iran. He also mentioned her coverage of the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop story.

Bertrand co-authored a CNN exclusive published on Wednesday, which, citing a preliminary US military intelligence assessment, contradicted Trump's claims that the American strikes had obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities. The CNN account was later supported by other media outlets.

"Natasha Bertrand should be FIRED from CNN! I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out 'like a dog'," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. 

CIA Director John Ratcliffe pushed back on skeptics, insisting that "a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged" by the strikes.

CNN acknowledged the preliminary nature of its Defense Intelligence Agency source and stood by its reporters for "accurately characterizing its findings, which are in the public interest."

Trump's rebuke of Bertrand claimed she "lied on the Laptop from Hell Story, and now she lied on the Nuclear Sites Story," a reference to her role in the 2020 story about Hunter Biden's laptop. While working at Politico, Bertrand authored a widely cited article titled 'Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say'. The open letter referenced in the piece did not make any such claim, however, stating only that the story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

The laptop, which contained compromising material, had been left at a Delaware repair shop by the former US president's drug-addicted son.