Tulsi Gabbard steps down as US intel CEO, talks about husband’s cancer diagnosis
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Tulsi Gabbard resigned as US President Donald Trump’s director of intelligence on Friday, saying she needed to step down as her husband battles cancer. He is the fourth cabinet official to leave during Trump’s second term.
In her resignation letter posted on social media, Gabbard said she told Trump she would step down on June 30. She said her husband was recently diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and “faces tremendous challenges in the coming weeks and months.”
“For now, I have to step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him in this fight,” he wrote in the letter, which was previously reported by Fox News.
Trump, in his own social media post announcing his resignation, said “Tulsi did an amazing job, and we will miss her.” He said his deputy, Aaron Lukas, will serve as acting director of national intelligence.
During Trump’s first term, Lukas was an intelligence assistant to the acting director of national intelligence, Ric Grenell, in 2020. A former policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank, he served as the senior deputy director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council during the final year of the Trump administration.
There were rumors that Gabbard would part ways with Trump after the president’s decision to strike Iran, which caused a split in his administration. Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation in March, saying he “cannot in good conscience” support the war.
Today, with great humility and sincere gratitude, I share the letter below with President Trump. It has been an honor to serve the American people as a DNI. pic.twitter.com/p7AZ4wa9Yi
Gabbard, a veteran and former Democratic congressman from Hawaii, made a political name for himself in his opposition to foreign wars. This put him at a disadvantage when the US joined Israel in attacking Iran on February 28.
Comments on Iran’s nuclear program
During a congressional hearing in March, his measured comments were notable for not carefully supporting Trump’s decision to strike Iran. He repeatedly dodged questions about whether the White House had been warned about the escalation of the conflict, including Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
US Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has been repeatedly questioned by US law enforcement about the Trump administration’s claims that Iran poses an ‘imminent threat’ as a reason for launching its war against the regime.
Gabbard said in written testimony to the US Senate Intelligence Committee that there had been no attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear capabilities after a US attack last year “destroyed” its nuclear program. That statement contradicts Trump, who has repeatedly said the war was necessary to end the threat from the Islamic Republic.
This created a tense exchange with law enforcement officials who asked Gabbard his opinion on the threat posed by Iran as the nation’s top intelligence official. He also said it was Trump’s decision to strike, not his.
“It is not the responsibility of the intelligence community to determine what is dangerous and what is not dangerous,” he said.
Gabbard’s departure follows Trump’s firing of US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in late March, amid mounting criticism of her leadership of the department.
The second cabinet member to leave was US Attorney General Pam Bondi, responding to growing frustration with the way the US Department of Justice is handling files related to Jeffrey Epstein. And US Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned in April, after becoming the target of multiple misconduct investigations.
No prior intel experience
A veteran but inexperienced in intelligence, Gabbard was a surprise choice to lead the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which oversees the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies. He ran for president in 2020 on a progressive platform and his opposition to US involvement in foreign military conflicts.
Citing his military experience, he pointed out that US wars in the Middle East have disrupted the region, made the US vulnerable and cost thousands of American lives. Gabbard eventually dropped out of the race and endorsed the eventual winner, US president Joe Biden.
Two years later he left the Democratic Party to become an independent, saying his old party was run by an “elitist cabal of warmongers” and “revolting” ideas. He then campaigned for several high-profile Republicans and contributed to Fox News.
He later endorsed Trump, who was also a vocal critic of America’s wars in the Middle East and campaigned on a promise to avoid unnecessary wars and nation-building overseas.
But the rift with the president began shortly after he began his second term and suggested Gabbard lead the ODNI, which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to improve cooperation between the nation’s intelligence agencies.
Shortly after taking the job, Gabbard testified before lawmakers that there was no intelligence to suggest that Iran wanted to build nuclear weapons. After Trump launched an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, he said Gabbard was wrong and didn’t care what he said.
He appeared to be back on Trump’s good side when he played a major role in Trump’s bid to avenge his 2020 election loss to Biden, whom Gabbard had endorsed. He appeared in an FBI search of election offices in Fulton County, Ga., even though his office was created to focus on foreign intelligence, not state elections.
However, earlier this week, he testified to lawmakers during the annual threats hearing that last year’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities had “destroyed” its nuclear program and that there was no subsequent attempt to rebuild it.
