Gabbard Resigns as Director of National Intelligence, Effective June 30

Tulsi Gabbard is resigning as Director of National Intelligence, effective June 30, saying she cannot continue in the demanding role while her husband undergoes treatment for a rare form of bone cancer, according to Al Jazeera and Newsweek. Newsweek reported that her letter, dated Friday, was submitted during an Oval Office meeting with President Trump. Al Jazeera said she posted it on X.

Mr. Trump confirmed the departure on Truth Social and said she would leave on June 30. “Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her,” he wrote, according to Al Jazeera. Newsweek reported that he said she “rightfully wants to be with him” and called it a tough battle. Principal Deputy Director Aaron Lukas, a former CIA chief of station who also served as chief of staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and on the National Security Council, will serve as acting director, both outlets reported.

Ms. Gabbard was a Democrat in Congress from 2013 to 2021 and ran a long-shot presidential bid in 2020. A Hawaii National Guard veteran who deployed during the Iraq invasion, she developed anti-interventionist views, then left the Democratic Party and endorsed Mr. Trump, Al Jazeera reported.

Newsweek, in its account of her tenure, said she cut the intelligence apparatus in a way that produced more than $700 million in annual savings, dismantled diversity programs across the intelligence community and oversaw the declassification of more than 500,000 pages of records, including files on the Trump-Russia investigation and the Kennedy assassinations. She argued the disclosures exposed politicization of intelligence under earlier administrations, Newsweek reported.

Her tenure was not without controversy. Al Jazeera reported that National Intelligence Council officials were fired after a report contradicted the administration’s claim that Venezuela’s government was coordinating with the Tren de Aragua gang, and that her presence at an FBI raid on a Georgia election center drew criticism, including from a Democratic senator who said she overstepped her role. Al Jazeera also reported that she was reportedly sidelined before the U.S. operation that seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, and that after initially staying silent she defended the decision to go to war with Iran, arguing the president, not the intelligence community, decides what counts as an imminent threat.

Reaction split along familiar lines. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., praised her for setting “a tone of accountability” across the federal government, according to Al Jazeera. Matt Duss, a former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, said she ended up serving an administration that launched what he called “the stupidest one yet against Iran,” and he hoped she would speak out after leaving, Al Jazeera reported.

She remains in office until June 30, during the Iran war. Neither report named a nominee to replace her.