Tulsi Gabbard resigns as director of national intelligence

Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump’s director of national intelligence, announced Friday she is leaving the administration.

Driving the news: Gabbard wrote in her resignation letter that her departure is related to her husband’s diagnosis with an “extremely rare form of bone cancer.”

• “At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle,” she wrote. “Abraham has been my rock throughout our eleven years of marriage — standing steadfast through my deployment to East Africa on a Joint Special Operations mission, multiple political campaigns, and now my service in this role.”
• Gabbard’s resignation will go into effect on June 30. Aaron Lukas, the principal deputy director of national intelligence, will take over as acting director of national intelligence, Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Between the lines: As a former Democrat and anti-interventionist in a wartime Republican administration, Gabbard had difficulty fitting into the administration and running the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

• Last month, Gabbard narrowly survived getting fired by Trump, who was persuaded to hold off by their mutual friend, Roger Stone, a longtime outside adviser to the president.
• Another Trump confidante, Laura Loomer, was a frequent critic of Gabbard’s. Loomer was first to report Gabbard’s resignation.

The intrigue: Gabbard’s ODNI has also been locked in a behind-the-scenes feud with the CIA for months that became public last week during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing.

• A CIA insider who was part of Gabbard’s special Directors Initiative Group testified that his agency had obstructed ODNI’s efforts to uncover more information about the JFK files, COVID’s origins and what are called “Anomalous Health Incidents” commonly referred to as Havana Syndrome.
• A CIA spokesperson disputed the testimony and said the agency has not impeded ODNI in any way.

Trump’s decision to strike Iran had put Gabbard’s anti-interventionist past — and strong opposition to a war, on a collision course with the administration’s wartime cheerleading.

• Last summer, Trump publicly dismissed Gabbard’s prior testimony that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and had not re-authorized its nuclear program, though she argued there was no daylight between her and the president.
• When asked about that assessment in June, Trump responded, “Then my intelligence community was wrong.” When told it was Gabbard who had said that, he responded, “She’s wrong.”

Zoom out: Gabbard’s exit follows that of her former top aide, ex-National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, who left the administration roughly two months ago with a fiery resignation letter.

• Kent, a former GOP House candidate, argued in his letter that Trump launched the Iran war under pressure from Israel despite Tehran posing “no imminent threat” to the U.S.
• In response, Gabbard said the president concluded “the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat” without mentioning Kent.
• When asked in March whether Iran posed an imminent threat, Gabbard deferred to Trump, telling lawmakers that “the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president.”

State of play: Gabbard is the fourth person to leave Trump’s Cabinet this term.

• Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ex-Attorney General Pam Bondi were both fired from their posts, while Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned as labor secretary.

Go deeper: Tulsi Gabbard says she is leaving the Democratic Party

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional context throughout.

المصدر: Axios