Trump intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard resigns, cites husband's cancer
As director of national intelligence, Gabbard oversees 18 US agencies, including the CIA and FBI. Her tenure has been marked by turbulence.
WASHINGTON − Tulsi Gabbard announced May 22 that she is resigning her post as the nation's top intelligence official due to her husband’s rare bone cancer diagnosis.
Gabbard, a U.S. Army reserve officer and former political commentator, was the first American Samoa native elected to Congress, representing Hawaii from 2013 to 2021.
Her tenure as head of all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies has been marked by turbulence, political clashes and questions about her standing in the White House − and in the administration’s national security hierarchy.
Gabbard, 45, announced her plans on X, writing, "Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026. My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer."
In a resignation letter also shared on social media, Gabbard told President Donald Trump she was "deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half."
Calling her husband, Abraham Williams, her “rock” during their 11 years of marriage, overseas deployments and political campaigns, Gabbard said, “I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position.”
President Trump: 'Tulsi has done an incredible job'
Trump acknowledged Gabbard's departure and wished her husband a swift recovery in a Truth Social post, saying that Aaron Lukas, principal deputy director of national intelligence, would serve as acting director.
Trump wrote, "Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her."
“While we have made significant progress at the ODNI advancing unprecedented transparency and restoring integrity to the intelligence community, I recognize there is still important work to be done,” Gabbard told Trump in her resignation letter, adding that she is committed to ensuring a smooth transition.
"I am saddened that my friend @tulsigabbard is leaving the Office of DNI," said Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee. "She will be missed."
Gabbard rose to become one of Trump’s most high-profile converts during the 2024 campaign while critics from both parties questioned her past – and at times controversial − comments about Syria, Russia and Ukraine and her broader opposition to U.S. interventionism around the world.
Democrats have long castigated Gabbard for what they said was her politicization of the intelligence community at Trump’s behest.
That included revoking the security clearances of many former officials of the Barack Obama and Joe Biden administrations that she accused – without evidence – of betraying the public’s trust.
Gabbard also established a “Weaponization Working Group” to attack Biden-era investigations, such as the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
And she participated in a controversial FBI search on Jan. 28 at the Fulton County Elections Hub & Operations Center near Atlanta as part of a probe related to the 2020 presidential election.
A turbulent tenure in intelligence
Gabbard's tenure became especially turbulent during the Iran war amid reports that intelligence community assessments of Tehran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon were at odds with Trump’s, undercutting his political justification for military action.
At a tense March 2026 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Gabbard notably declined to say whether Iran posed an “imminent” nuclear threat, arguing that such judgments ultimately belonged to the president, not the intelligence community.
The testimony came a day after one of Gabbard's top allies, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, publicly resigned over the war, becoming the highest-profile administration official to buck the president over justifications for it.
“Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote in a letter to Trump, who nominated him for the top U.S. counterterrorism job on Feb. 3, 2025.
As the intelligence chief, Gabbard led a broad transparency push, including declassifying more than 500,000 pages of records and working with multiple agencies to release long-secret files on the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. She also highlighted intelligence disclosures she said challenged the narrative around the Russia investigation.
Gabbard also initiated a sweeping internal overhaul, cutting ODNI staffing by over 40% in a move that her office said saved taxpayers more than $700 million annually under “ODNI 2.0.” The effort included eliminating DEI programs, targeting waste and abuse, and refocusing the agency on core intelligence work, alongside new investments in technology and cybersecurity modernization.
A Democratic vow to fight rewarding 'loyalty over competence'
In parting comments, Democratic lawmakers wished Gabbard and her husband well. But they sharply criticized her tenure and promised to fight any effort by the Trump administration to nominate someone without the intelligence bona fides to lead the ODNI.
“While the circumstances around her departure are deserving of our sympathy, let’s be clear: Tulsi Gabbard’s only positive contribution to our nation's national security is her resignation," Sen. Adam Schiff of California, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.
“She politicized intelligence," Schiff said. "She dismantled critical agencies keeping Americans safe. She weaponized the IC to pursue baseless election fraud claims. And more."
In a dig at Gabbard’s sometimes unorthodox political pronouncements, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a social media post, “Donald Trump must not treat this vacancy as another opportunity to reward loyalty over competence.”
“The DNI’s job is to protect the American people with facts, judgment, and independence – not to launder conspiracy theories or tell the President what he wants to hear,” Schumer said. “Senate Democrats will fight any nominee who puts Trump’s politics ahead of America’s security."