Tulsi Gabbard Abruptly Quits After Increased Scrutiny Over Iran
Tulsi Gabbard is resigning from her position as director of national intelligence.Gabbard notified the president of her forthcoming departure during a Cabinet meeting at the Oval Office Friday. Her last day is expected to be June 30.She is reportedly departing Trump’s Cabinet to assist her husband, Abraham Williams, as he battles cancer, Fox News Digital reported.“Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026,” Gabbard wrote in her resignation letter, obtained first by Fox. “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”Gabbard said that her husband “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.Gabbard and her husband first met in Hawaii while he volunteered for her 2012 Democratic congressional campaign. They have been married for 11 years.“His strength and love have sustained me through every challenge,” she continued. “I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position.”It is not immediately clear who will replace Gabbard.Her exit has curious timing. Despite being appointed to run America’s national intelligence operation, Gabbard has spent the last several months largely sidelined from the Trump admin’s national security operations. She was noticeably absent during decisions surrounding the White House’s attack on Venezuela, as well as the ongoing war with Iran.Gabbard’s opinion on such matters frequently differed from Trump’s talking points: she has argued that the U.S. had different objectives in the war than Israel, and claimed that Tehran had not actually attempted to rebuild its nuclear program after the U.S. military attacked three of its key nuclear sites last June. Gabbard blatantly irritated Trump earlier this year when she opted to shield a former deputy who openly disagreed with the war.Regardless of the broad purview of her office, Gabbard had recently been relegated to pursuing claims of 2020 election fraud. In January, Gabbard was caught on camera overseeing FBI agents as they packed up the Fulton County, Georgia, election office and walked out with ballots from the 2020 presidential election, despite the fact that she is prohibited from taking part in domestic law enforcement operations. Gabbard told Democratic lawmakers in February that Donald Trump himself had asked her to be there—but he did not stick by her side. Instead, Trump blamed Gabbard’s participation on ex-Attorney General Pam Bondi. Now, both women are gone from his administration.Four people have exited Trump’s Cabinet since he returned to office last year—all of them women. They include Gabbard, Bondi, ex-DHS chief Kristi Noem, and former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.This story has been updated.
