Tulsi Gabbard Resigns As Director Of National Intelligence
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard submitted her resignation Friday, citing her husband’s recent cancer diagnosis as the reason for stepping down from the Trump administration.
In a resignation letter first reported Friday, Gabbard said her departure would become effective June 30, 2026.
“Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation,” Gabbard wrote. “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”
The former Hawaii congresswoman also thanked President Trump for appointing her to the high-profile intelligence role.
“I am deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me,” she wrote to the president.
Gabbard’s resignation comes during a tense geopolitical moment for the administration as the White House continues navigating the ongoing confrontation with Iran following Operation Epic Fury and broader instability across the Middle East.
The news surfaced just minutes after President Trump revealed he planned to remain at the White House over the weekend instead of traveling to his New Jersey golf property, fueling speculation that additional military or diplomatic developments involving Iran could be imminent.
Despite her longstanding skepticism toward foreign intervention and regime-change wars, Gabbard publicly remained aligned with the administration throughout the Iran conflict.
During Senate testimony earlier this year, Gabbard stated that “the intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capability.”
Still, throughout much of the administration’s escalating standoff with Tehran, John Ratcliffe increasingly emerged as one of President Trump’s most publicly praised national security officials.
Gabbard also became a key figure in several of the administration’s domestic intelligence and election-related initiatives, including investigations tied to alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Her departure follows another high-profile resignation earlier this year involving former National Counterterrorism Center head Joe Kent, who publicly criticized the administration’s Iran strategy and accused Israel of influencing President Trump into military action.
Before joining the Trump administration, Gabbard built a national political profile as a Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and later became one of the most prominent former Democrats to align herself with President Trump and the MAGA movement.