Tulsi Gabbard resigned on Friday as President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, saying she needed to step away after her husband, Abraham, was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.
“Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026,” Gabbard wrote in her resignation letter posted on X. “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.” Her departure makes her the fourth Cabinet official to leave during Trump’s second term.
Iran tensions deepened divisions
Gabbard’s resignation follows months of speculation about tensions between her and Trump, particularly after the president’s decision to strike Iran. A longtime critic of U.S. military interventions, Gabbard had built her political identity around opposition to foreign wars. That stance placed her in a difficult position after the U.S. joined Israel in launching attacks on Iran earlier this year.
During congressional hearings, Gabbard repeatedly avoided directly endorsing Trump’s decision to strike Iran. She also sidestepped questions about whether the White House had been warned about the possible fallout from the conflict, including the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz. In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard said there had been no effort by Iran to rebuild its nuclear capabilities after U.S. attacks last year had “obliterated” the country’s nuclear program.
Her remarks appeared to contradict Trump’s repeated claims that the strikes were necessary to stop an imminent threat from Iran. “It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” Gabbard said during one hearing.
Fourth major departure from Trump’s Cabinet
Gabbard’s exit follows several other high-profile resignations from Trump’s administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was ousted in March amid criticism over immigration enforcement and disaster response efforts. Attorney General Pam Bondi later stepped down following backlash over the Justice Department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein-related files.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer also resigned after facing misconduct investigations. Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, had resigned earlier this year, saying he “cannot in good conscience” support the war effort involving Iran.
A surprising intelligence chief
Gabbard’s appointment as director of national intelligence had raised eyebrows from the beginning. A military veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, she had no formal intelligence background before taking charge of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees America’s 18 intelligence agencies. She first gained national attention during the 2020 Democratic presidential race, where she campaigned on a progressive platform focused heavily on ending U.S. involvement in foreign wars.
After dropping out of the race, she endorsed Joe Biden. But in 2022, she left the Democratic Party, accusing it of being controlled by an “elitist cabal of warmongers” and “woke” ideologues.
Gabbard later aligned herself more closely with Republicans, became a Fox News contributor, and eventually endorsed Trump. During her year leading U.S. intelligence operations, Gabbard promised to eliminate what she described as political bias within intelligence agencies. However, critics accused her of using the office to support Trump’s political narratives, including claims surrounding the 2020 election. She also sought to challenge previous investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia and oversaw significant cuts to the intelligence workforce. Earlier this year, an intelligence whistleblower alleged that Gabbard withheld intelligence for political reasons, accusations that led several Democrats to call for her resignation.
From Hawaii politics to national spotlight
Born in American Samoa and raised in Hawaii, Gabbard entered politics at just 21 years old when she won a seat in Hawaii’s House of Representatives. Her political career was interrupted when her National Guard unit deployed to Iraq.She later became the first Hindu member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the first American Samoan elected to Congress, taking her oath of office with her hand on the Bhagavad Gita. Over four terms in Congress, Gabbard became known for frequently challenging Democratic Party leadership and for her early support of Bernie Sanders during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.