Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard speaks during a press conference, at the White House in Washington, DC, US, July 23, 2025.
Kent Nishimura Reuters
Tulsi Gabbard is resigning as President Donald Trump’s director of national intelligence, becoming the latest Cabinet official to leave her administration, she announced Friday.
Gabbard, in her resignation letter to Trump, said she had to step down to support her husband, Abraham Williams, “who was recently diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer.”
A letter from Tulsi Gabbard announcing her resignation.
Source: The White House
“I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this battle alone while I continue with this difficult and time-consuming situation,” he wrote in a letter on Friday.
His resignation is effective June 30, he wrote.
Trump confirmed Friday that Gabbard is “unfortunately” leaving, writing in a Social Truth blog that he “did an amazing job, and we will miss him.”
Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas will take over from Gabbard as acting director, Trump wrote in the post.
Fox News first reported Gabbard’s resignation.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congressman from Hawaii who fell out with his party and later joined the GOP, was confirmed as national intelligence chief less than a month into Trump’s second term. As DNI, he led the US intelligence community, a growing coalition of 18 agencies and organizations.
His tenure has been marked by reports of behind-the-scenes clashes with Trump and other administration officials — at times seemingly out in the open.
Gabbard, a veteran who was deployed to the Middle East, endorsed Trump in 2024 on anti-interventionist grounds, praising him as a peacemaker while criticizing former Democratic President Joe Biden for the conflicts that began during his tenure.
As Trump pursued strikes against Iran to disable its nuclear capabilities last summer, Gabbard released a rare video warning about “warmongers recklessly stoking fear and discord among nuclear powers.”
The video angered Trump, Politico reported at the time. Asked later that month about Gabbard’s testimony before the Senate that Iran was not trying to build a nuclear bomb, Trump replied, “I don’t care what you say,” and later said, “You’re wrong.”
Gabbard also drew attention to her appearance during an FBI raid on an election office in Georgia in late January that led to the seizure of 2020 election records. Trump has been falsely claiming for years that the 2020 race, which he lost to Biden, was against him.
Gabbard’s resignation announcement adds to the list of top Trump administration officials who have left or been fired so far this year.
More than a month earlier, Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned as Labor Secretary to take an unspecified job in the private sector.
In early April, Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, who faced pressure over her handling of the scandal surrounding notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He was replaced as acting deputy by Todd Blanche, his deputy and former Trump attorney.
In March, Trump fired Kristi Noem, who headed the Department of Homeland Security, following national controversy related to her handling of brutal immigration enforcement policies in American cities.
