Tulsi Gabbard resigns as director of national intelligence, citing her
husband's health
[May 23, 2026]
By MEG KINNARD, WILL WEISSERT and DAVID KLEPPER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tulsi Gabbard resigned as President Donald Trump's
director of national intelligence on Friday, saying she needed to leave
office as her husband battles cancer. She is the fourth Cabinet member
to depart during Trump’s second term, all of them women.
In her resignation letter, which she posted on social media, Gabbard
said she told Trump she would leave her job overseeing the coordination
of 18 intelligence agencies on June 30. She said her husband had
recently been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and “faces major
challenges in the coming weeks and months.”
“At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side
and fully support him through this battle,” she wrote in the letter,
which was reported earlier by Fox News.
Trump, in his own social media post, said “Tulsi has done an incredible
job, and we will miss her.” He said her principal deputy, Aaron Lukas,
will serve as acting director of national intelligence.
While Gabbard says her departure is for personal reasons, the
juxtaposition between her long-held, anti-interventionism stance and
Trump’s series of overseas military operations had seemed to put them on
a collision course.
Iran put Gabbard and Trump at odds
There had been rumblings that Gabbard would split with Trump after the
president's decision to strike Iran, which caused some division within
his administration. Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism
Center, announced his resignation in March and said he “cannot in good
conscience” back the war.
Gabbard, a veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii,
built her political name on her opposition to foreign wars. This put her
in an awkward position when the U.S. joined Israel in launching attacks
on Iran on Feb. 28.
During a congressional hearing in March, her measured comments were
notable for their careful non-endorsement of the Iran war. She
repeatedly dodged questions about whether the White House had been
warned of potential fallout from the conflict, including Iran’s
effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway crucial for global
oil shipments.
Gabbard said in written remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee
that there had been no effort by Iran to rebuild its nuclear capability
after U.S. attacks last year “obliterated” its nuclear program. That
statement contradicted Trump, who has repeatedly asserted that the war
was necessary to head off an imminent threat from the Islamic Republic.
This created several awkward exchanges with lawmakers who asked Gabbard
for her opinion on the threat posed by Iran as the nation’s top
intelligence official. She repeatedly said it was Trump’s decision to
strike, not hers.
“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what
is and is not an imminent threat,” she said.
Gabbard’s departure follows Trump having ousted Homeland Security
Secretary Kristi Noem in late March, in the midst of mounting criticism
over her leadership of the department — including the handling of the
administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response.
The second Cabinet member to leave was Attorney General Pam Bondi, in
response to growing frustration over the Justice Department’s handling
of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. And Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer
resigned in April, after being the target of various misconduct
investigations.
Lukas, who will be taking over for Gabbard, was an intelligence aide to
the acting director of national intelligence, Ric Grenell, in 2020
during Trump's first term. A former policy analyst at the Cato
Institute, a libertarian think tank, he also served as deputy senior
director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council in the
final year of Trump’s previous administration.
A surprising choice for the job
A military veteran but without any intelligence experience, Gabbard was
a surprising choice for director of national intelligence. She ran for
president in 2020 on a progressive platform and her opposition to U.S.
involvement in foreign military conflicts.
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Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sits in the James
Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, July 23, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Citing her military experience, she argued that U.S. wars in the
Middle East had destabilized the region, made the U.S. less safe and
cost thousands of American lives. Gabbard later dropped out of the
race and endorsed the ultimate winner, President Joe Biden.
Two years later, she left the Democratic Party to become an
independent, saying her old party was dominated by an “elitist cabal
of warmongers” and “woke” ideologues. She subsequently campaigned
for several high-profile Republicans and became a contributor to Fox
News.
She later endorsed Trump, who also was a strong critic of past U.S.
wars in the Middle East and campaigned on a pledge to avoid
unnecessary wars and nation-building overseas.
Iran caused early tensions
But friction with the president started soon after he began his
second term and tapped Gabbard to lead ODNI, which was set up after
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to improve coordination between the
nation’s intelligence agencies.
Shortly after taking on the job and before this year's war, Gabbard
testified before lawmakers that there was no intelligence suggesting
Iran was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. After Trump launched
attacks on Iranian nuclear sites last June, he said Gabbard was
wrong and that he didn’t care what she said.
She appeared to be back in Trump’s good graces when she took a lead
role in Trump’s effort to relitigate his 2020 election loss to
Biden. She appeared at an FBI search of election offices in Fulton
County, Georgia, even though her office was created to focus on
foreign espionage, not state elections.
Gabbard made big changes in her time in office
Gabbard vowed to eliminate what she said was the politicization of
intelligence by government insiders. But she quickly used her office
to support some of Trump’s most partisan arguments — that he won the
2020 election.
She also worked to undermine the results of earlier investigations
into Trump’s ties to Russia.
In her year on the job, Gabbard oversaw a sharp reduction in the
intelligence workforce, as well as the creation of a new task force
that she charged with considering big changes to the intelligence
service.
Earlier this year, an intelligence sector whistleblower filed a
complaint that Gabbard was withholding intelligence for political
reasons, a complaint that prompted calls from Democrats for
Gabbard’s resignation.
Gabbard, 44, was born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa,
raised in Hawaii and spent a year of her childhood in the
Philippines. She was first elected as a 21-year-old to Hawaii’s
House of Representatives but had to leave after one term when her
National Guard unit deployed to Iraq.
As the first Hindu member of the House, Gabbard was sworn into
office with her hand on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu devotional
work. She was also the first American Samoan elected to Congress.
During her four House terms, she became known for speaking out
against her party’s leadership. Her early support for Sen. Bernie
Sanders ’ 2016 Democratic presidential primary run made her a
popular figure in progressive politics nationally.
___
Kinnard reported from Columbia, S.C.
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