Published Fri, May 22 20261:15 PM EDT
Updated 7 Min Ago
Kevin Breuninger
Key Points
Gabbard, in a resignation letter addressed to Trump, said she has to step down in order to support her husband, Abraham Williams, who has “recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”
Kevin Breuninger
Key Points
- Tulsi Gabbard is resigning as President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence.
- Gabbard said she is leaving her post to support her husband, who is battling a rare form of bone cancer.
- Gabbard’s resignation is effective June 30, she said.
- Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas will take over from Gabbard in an acting capacity, Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Gabbard, in a resignation letter addressed to Trump, said she has to step down in order to support her husband, Abraham Williams, who has “recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.”
A letter from Tulsi Gabbard stating her resignation.
Courtesy: The White House
“I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position,” she wrote in the letter dated Friday.
Her resignation is effective June 30, she wrote.
Trump confirmed later Friday that Gabbard was “unfortunately” departing, writing in a Truth Social post that she has “done an incredible job, and we will miss her.”
Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas will take over from Gabbard in an acting capacity, Trump wrote in the post.
Fox News first reported Gabbard’s resignation.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who fell out with her party and later joined the GOP, was confirmed as national intelligence chief less than a month after Trump’s second term began. As DNI, she led the U.S. intelligence community, a sprawling coalition of 18 agencies and organizations.
Her tenure was marked by reports of behind-the-scenes clashes with Trump and other administration officials — which sometimes appeared to spill out in the open.
Gabbard, a veteran who was deployed to the Middle East, had endorsed Trump in 2024 on anti-interventionist grounds, praising him as a peace-seeker while condemning Democratic former President Joe Biden over the conflicts that began during his term.
As Trump pursued striking Iran to cripple its nuclear capabilities last summer, Gabbard released an unusual video warning about “warmongers carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers.”
The video incensed Trump, Politico reported at the time. Asked that month about Gabbard’s prior Senate testimony that Iran wasn’t trying to build a nuclear bomb, Trump replied, “I don’t care what she said,” and later said, “She’s wrong.”
Gabbard’s resignation announcement expands the list of top Trump administration officials who have left or been fired so far this year.
Just over a month earlier, Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned as Secretary of Labor in order to take an unspecified job in the private sector.
Earlier in April, Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, who faced pressure over her handling of matters related to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She was replaced in an acting capacity by Todd Blanche, her deputy and Trump’s former personal defense attorney.
In March, Trump ousted Kristi Noem, who led the Department of Homeland Security, following national controversies related to her handling of aggressive immigration enforcement policies in U.S. cities.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment