By Peter Nicholas
Updated Jan. 30, 2019 10:43 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON—President Trump on Wednesday took aim at U.S. national security officials over their analysis of the dangers posed by Iran, the latest instance of him casting doubt on the abilities of his own intelligence experts.
In a series of tweets, Mr. Trump suggested that Iran is close to developing nuclear weapons and that intelligence agencies who don’t recognize the threat are misinformed.
Mr. Trump’s remarks come a day after U.S. intelligence chiefs testified to a Senate panel about various risks facing the U.S. In some cases, the officials took positions that undercut the case Mr. Trump has been making about the potential for a nuclear deal with North Korea and the threat posed by Iran.
“The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong!” the president said in one morning tweet. In another, he wrote that Iran was “testing Rockets” last week. “Be careful of Iran,” he wrote. “Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!”
Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, testified Tuesday that officials did not believe Iran was developing a nuclear weapon. That assertion is at odds with Mr. Trump’s long-held view that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that President Obama negotiated alongside five other nations was ineffective.
“We do not believe Iran is currently undertaking the key activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device,” Mr. Coats said.