Tulsi Gabbard has resigned as Donald Trump’s top intelligence chief, citing her husband’s recent diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer, following months of growing friction over the President’s decision to launch a war against Iran.
Gabbard met with Trump in the Oval Office on Friday, where she delivered her resignation letter. She will officially depart as Director of National Intelligence on June 30.
Gabbard is the fourth member of Trump’s Cabinet to resign in the past three months, after Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an extraordinary attrition rate among the women serving under the President.
In her formal resignation letter, Gabbard thanked Trump and says she was ‘deeply grateful for the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead’ the top intelligence agency for the year and a half.
Gabbard revealed that her husband, Abraham Williams, ‘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 said.
Gabbard, 45, met Williams, 37, a filmmaker and cinematographer, in 2012 when he volunteered on her congressional campaign in Hawaii, and the two married in a traditional Vedic ceremony in April 2015.
Gabbard represented the non-interventionist wing of Trump’s Cabinet, and her departure follows that of her deputy, Joe Kent, who resigned only months ago in a scathing letter accusing Israel of misleading the President into war with Iran.
Tulsi Gabbard has resigned as Donald Trump’s top intelligence chief, citing her husband’s recent diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer , following months of growing friction over the President’s decision to launch a war against Iran
Gabbard met Williams, a filmmaker and cinematographer, in 2012 when he volunteered on her congressional campaign in Hawai i, and the two married in a traditional Vedic ceremony in April 2015
Gabbard is the fourth member of Trump’s Cabinet to resign in the past three months, after Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an extraordinary attrition rate among the women serving under the President
Gabbard’s departure comes on the heels of Tuesday’s resignation of another top deputy, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a former CIA officer who married into the Kennedy family.
Her resignation hours before Trump mysteriously backed out of his Donald Trump’s JR’s wedding this weekend, citing ‘circumstance pertaining to government.’
‘While I very much wanted to be with my son, Don Jr., and the newest member of the Trump Family, his soon to be wife, Bettina, circumstances pertaining to Government, and my love for the United States of America, do not allow me to do so,’ Trump wrote.
The sequence of events adds to growing concerns that stalled diplomatic talks with the Iranian regime could draw the US back into a full-scale war as early as this weekend.
Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu had a heated phone call on Tuesday night, with the Israeli prime minister pressing the president to resume the bombing campaign against Iran.
Throughout the war, Trump has relied on CIA Director John Ratcliffe as his point man on Iran intelligence, while Tulsi Gabbard has been sidelined.
On the first night of the war, she was photographed in Washington alongside non-interventionist Vice President JD Vance, while the President was pictured with Marco Rubio, Susie Wiles, and Ratcliffe.
Gabbard’s disputes with the President spilled into public view last June as Trump weighed joining Israel’s strikes on Iran
Gabbard was considered a close ally of Vance within the administration
As director of national intelligence, Gabbard declassified more than half a million pages of secret documents related to the Trump-Russia investigation and the JFK assassination.
Gabbard reshaped the intelligence community by shrinking the agency’s size through the dismantling of DEI programs and other roles, earning praise from the President.
However, her tenure became marred by the Iran war, as she had spent decades in public life advocating against regime-change wars in the Middle East.
She proudly endorsed Trump during the 2024 election, claiming he would not lead the US into a war with Iran.
Gabbard’s disputes with the President spilled into public view last June as Trump weighed joining Israel’s strikes on Iran.
‘I don’t care what she said,’ Trump fumed to a reporter when asked about the DNI’s March 2025 testimony that Iran had not decided to build a nuclear bomb. ‘I think they were very close to having it.’
Four days later, Trump launched Operation Midnight Hammer, with B-2 Spirit stealth bombers striking Iranian nuclear facilities.
Gabbard was considered a close ally of Vance within the administration.
