CNN commentator and New York Times White House correspondent  told anchor she was “struck by” President blurting out he “doesn’t care” about his intel community’s assessment of Iran — but not because of the optics.

Trump sent chins wagging when, under grilling from Collins on Air Force One, he dismissed his own Director of National Intelligence  assessment of Iran’s nuclear capability:

KAITLAN COLLINS: How close do you personally think that they were to getting one? Because Tulsi Gabbard–

TRUMP: Very close.

COLLINS: –Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon.

TRUMP: I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.

Haberman was a guest on Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, during which she said she wasn’t surprised by the public split, but by Trump’s shift despite an absence of “new information” from the intel community:

COLLINS: Maggie, when you see Director Gabbard, I mean, she was quite clear in the testimony to Congress. But it was notable to see how dismissive, I guess, is the best way to put it, President Trump was, of that analysis from the intelligence community.

MAGGIE HABERMAN: Yes, and Kaitlan, Gabbard pointed out that, you know, if you read the fuller statement that she gave, she did say that enrichment levels are at their highest for any non-nuclear state.

COLLINS: Yes.

HABERMAN: And so, and the higher — highest levels that they’ve been. And that is true.

What I was struck by A of, you know, he just was — he was publicly dismissive that just is what it is. But what I was also struck by is he was saying, ‘This is what I think.’ You asked him about his opinion. He made very clear his opinion.

I was struck by that in part because, as my colleagues and I, , , and Ronen Bergman, and several others reported today, that contrary to what the Israelis were saying, there was not some new piece of information that appeared to point to some acceleration, at least that the U.S. intelligence officials were aware of, but that it was clear that Netanyahu was moving ahead with a strike. And so that’s where we are.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.