'Kind of pointless': Top Trump admin official on US strikes against Iran, hints at 'deep state' role

A top Trump administration official on Tuesday said that the US strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities were kind of pointless while replying to a discussion on social media. The development comes after US President Donald Trump claimed there was 'monumental damage' to Iranian nuclear sites after US strikes.

To substantiate his claim, Trump showed satellite images detailing extensive destruction, particularly below ground level. 

The discussion started when a user named Sean Davis asked: "Is America safer?" To this, another user commented that if striking Iran runs the risk of World War 3 or terrorism by Tehran, then strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities seem a long-term benefit for the US.

Replying to this, Andrew Kloster, general counsel at the Office of Personnel Management, wrote: "No, I think it was just kind of pointless." Kloster has a key role in implementing the "Schedule F" directive to ensure that non-political appointees in the federal bureaucracy are upholding the president's policies. 

Within an hour of Trump announcing successful US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Kloster said in a now-deleted post: "I apologise and will never again doubt the power of the deep state." 

He also retweeted a frustrated social media user's post on the US' role in the Israel-Iran conflict. "Can we please ignore this god-forsaken region of Earth and their tribal squabbles?" 

The social media have been deleted and are not visible since Tuesday morning. Business Today could not independently verify the social media posts by Andrew Kloster. 

Meanwhile, a preliminary US intel assessment report by the Defence Intelligence Agency has stated that the US airstrikes did not completely destroy Iran's nuclear capability, unlike Trump's repeated claims. Trump repeatedly stated the US deployment of 30,000-pound bombs "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program. 

The report, however, acknowledged that the US strikes set Iran's nuclear capability back by a month or two. The strikes sealed off the entrances to 2 of the 3 facilities but didn't collapse the underground buildings.

In its precision strikes, the US targeted 3 key nuclear facilities of Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. “All planes are now outside of Iran's airspace. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home,” Trump said.