The Trump cabinet shake-up continued with the departure of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, adding to a growing list of high-profile exits from the administration. Gabbard’s exit follows the removal of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure amid criticism over the handling of Jeffrey Epstein-related files, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s resignation following misconduct investigations.
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.”
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“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 Praises Gabbard
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.
More High-Level Exits from Trump Cabinet
Gabbard’s departure follows Trump having removed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in late March, amid 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.
Iran caused early tensions
Iran became a point of contention between the two early in her tenure. Friction with the president intensified soon after he began his second term and appointed Gabbard to lead ODNI, which was established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to improve coordination between the nation’s intelligence agencies.
Shortly after taking office and before the military strikes, Gabbard testified before lawmakers that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran was actively pursuing nuclear weapons development. After Trump authorized attacks on Iranian nuclear sites, he publicly disputed her assessment, stating he disregarded her intelligence briefings.
She appeared to regain Trump’s confidence when she took a prominent role in his effort to challenge his 2020 election loss to Biden. She attended an FBI search of election offices in Fulton County, Georgia—a task beyond her agency’s mandate of monitoring foreign espionage, not domestic elections.
