Donald Trump has spoken. And as so often in his second term, what he says is less an assessment than a command – and less a truth than an act of will. Iran, the US president declared on the return flight from the aborted G7 summit, is “very close” to having a nuclear bomb. A statement that directly contradicts the assessment of his own intelligence agencies. Agencies that were created to provide facts, to evaluate risks soberly, and not to flatter the whims of a narcissistic power figure.
Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, had testified before Congress in March that Iran is not building a nuclear bomb. Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program that was suspended in 2003. Gabbard acknowledged unprecedented levels of enriched uranium – yes – but also emphasized that there was no indication of military intent. That Trump casually dismissed this carefully constructed intelligence conclusion – saying “I don’t care what she said” – was no slip. It is strategy. Once again, analysis does not define reality – political usefulness does. And once again, Trump places himself not only above the law but above knowledge itself.
The parallels to his first term are unmistakable. Back then, he publicly sided with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and rejected his own intelligence services when asked about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Now he is doing the same – but with far more serious consequences. The question of Iran's nuclear capabilities is not rhetorical theater. It is about war and peace, about credibility and diplomacy. That Trump ignores the warnings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, turns facts into enemy images, and values loyalty over expertise is dangerously destabilizing. And that Gabbard – a political outsider with little intelligence experience – now publicly aligns herself with Trump's narrative shows just how deeply the system has already been compromised.
Gabbard’s rise to the heart of power is itself a symbol of this shift. A former Democrat who left her party in 2022 and endorsed Trump in 2024, she was narrowly confirmed by a Republican-controlled Senate. Her recent decisions – including the firing of two senior intelligence officers who contradicted Trump’s claims about Venezuelan gangs collaborating with Tren de Aragua – reveal a troubling pattern. Those who dissent are removed. Those who comply are rewarded. And those who remain silent become complicit.
The fact that the White House then released a statement in which Gabbard defended Trump's deportations by saying America is now “safer without these terrorists” reads like something out of an authoritarian playbook. It is no longer about nuanced security analysis – it is about political theater. Trump defines what is true – and his administration ensures no one contradicts him.
The question is no longer whether Donald Trump distorts reality. The question is how long a democracy can survive when the president publicly undermines his own director of intelligence, disregards every professional assessment, and builds a shadow state based on loyalty, fear, and propaganda. In this world, what matters is not what is true – but who says it. And that is the beginning of the end of enlightenment.
English 
German 
