Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) accused President Trump of lying Sunday after a Fox News segment raised what Democrats have been saying for weeks — that Trump’s repeated claims to have “obliterated” Iran’s military cannot be reconciled with an Iran that has now launched 54 waves of retaliatory attacks, killed two U.S. service members in Jordan, struck commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and fired its most advanced Sejjil ballistic missiles for the first time since the war began.
“Maybe, just maybe, and I know for some of you this may be difficult to believe — Trump is lying,” Lieu wrote on X, attaching a clip of Fox News host Maria Bartiromo questioning how Iran still has the military capability to fight after the administration had claimed to destroy it.
“I don’t understand how it’s possible that Iran has the capabilities to fight this way and continue to try to lash out at Gulf countries and US military bases,” Bartiromo said on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures. “Because the US has obliterated Iran’s military, and the president continues to reiterate that.”
What Trump Has Said and When
Trump has made a series of escalating claims about the destruction of Iran’s military over the course of the five-month conflict. On March 14, he posted on Truth Social: “We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are,” per Rachel Blevins’s documented timeline of Trump’s Iran claims.
On March 13, Trump told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade Show: “We’ve knocked out close to 90% of their missiles. The president said the U.S. has taken out the majority of Iran’s missiles and drone manufacturing sites, adding that the military is ‘hitting them harder than anybody’s been hit since World War II.'”
As recently as June 6, Trump claimed in an NBC News interview with Kristen Welker that Iran’s military has been “totally destroyed” and only has around 21% of its missile capacity left after U.S.-Israeli strikes. “We know where their drones are, and we know where their drone factories are. Most of the drone factories have been knocked out… and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out,” Trump said.
What Iran Has Actually Done Since Trump Said All That
While Trump claimed the U.S. had “destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability,” the IRGC launched its 54th wave of retaliatory attacks on Sunday, which included the use of Sejjil ballistic missiles for the first time — Iran’s most advanced solid-fueled ballistic missile with a range of approximately 2,000 kilometers. Two U.S. service members were killed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17 — the deadliest single Iranian attack on American forces since hostilities resumed on July 8. CENTCOM confirmed its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iranian targets was underway Sunday, per CENTCOM’s official public releases.
CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper acknowledged at a parallel press conference that Iran was now firing “significantly fewer missiles” — a formulation that concedes Iran is still firing missiles, contradicting Trump’s claim of 100% destruction. Vice President JD Vance, the administration’s lead negotiator with Iran, acknowledged the limits of air power himself: “You can bomb them, you can take away their radar, you can take away some of their drones and some of their missiles, but it’s just too easy to fire at ships in the straits. So you’ve got to actually be willing to talk and try to figure out the problem.”
The Intelligence Picture Trump’s Claims Contradicted
Trump’s comments have also contradicted his own administration’s intelligence assessments. After Trump said Iran was “working on missiles that will soon reach” the United States at his State of the Union address, U.S. intelligence sources told Reuters that the claim was a significant exaggeration of Iran’s nuclear capabilities. A Defense Intelligence Agency report found it will take Iran until 2035 to fully develop operational long-range nuclear attack capabilities. One source said even with Chinese or North Korean assistance, Iran would still be eight years away from a missile system capable of hitting the United States.
The gap between Trump’s claims and the documented reality is not a matter of partisan interpretation. It is a matter of record. Trump said 100% of Iran’s military was destroyed. Iran used advanced ballistic missiles not seen before in the conflict the very next day. Trump said 21% of Iran’s missile capacity remained as of June. Iran killed two Americans in Jordan and fired its 54th wave of attacks in July. Bartiromo’s question on Fox News Sunday — “how does Iran still have this capability?” — was not a Democratic talking point. It was a Republican-aligned host asking the administration to account for the gap between what it claimed and what Iran is still doing.
Lieu’s Standing to Make This Argument
Lieu is a former active-duty Air Force Judge Advocate and Air Force Reserve officer who served on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He has access to classified intelligence briefings on the conflict that the general public does not. His one-sentence Sunday post — “Trump is lying” — is not speculation. It is a conclusion from a member of Congress with classified access and military training, supported by a public record of Trump claims that do not match documented Iranian military activity, per his official House press releases on Iran and national security.
The political stakes of the claim are significant heading into November. If Trump’s “obliterated” narrative collapses publicly — if a Fox News host is visibly confused about how Iran still has the capability to kill Americans nine weeks after the president said it had none — the administration’s war rationale faces a credibility problem that extends well beyond what Democrats alone can create. Lieu’s Sunday post was four words. The evidence behind it has been accumulating for five months.