Tulsi Gabbard has submitted her resignation as director of national intelligence, citing concerns about her husband’s health, after roughly 15 months leading the country’s intelligence community under President Donald Trump.
In her resignation letter, Gabbard said she is stepping down to support her husband, videographer Abraham Williams, as he battles a rare form of bone cancer. “He faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months,” she wrote. “At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle.”
Gabbard will leave the administration on June 30, and Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas will serve as acting director of national intelligence, Trump announced on Truth Social later Friday.
“Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her,” the president wrote.
Gabbard is the latest member of Trump’s Cabinet to leave the administration, following the firings of Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary in early March and former Attorney General Pam Bondi early April, as well as the departure of former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer later in April.
As DNI, Gabbard was tasked with overseeing 18 intelligence agencies and advising Trump on intelligence matters. But she quickly came to be seen as ineffectual and irrelevant and appeared out of place in the Trump administration. She was conspicuously absent from both the administration’s public messaging on the Iran war and from the behind-the-scenes deliberations.
She faced fierce grilling from the Senate Intelligence Committee about the U.S. war with Iran in March. Prior to that hearing, she issued a statement saying it was Trump’s position “that the terrorist Islamist regime in Iran posed an imminent threat and he took action based on that conclusion.” Gabbard, once a staunch anti-interventionist, made no mention of what the intelligence community, which she led, had determined on the subject.
Although she had reportedly been sidelined by the administration, Gabbard made headlines in January for her presence during an FBI raid at an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, despite the fact that domestic law enforcement efforts were outside her purview.
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At the hearing in March before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard denied having participated directly in law enforcement activity, adding, “nor would I, because that does not exist within my authorities.” She was merely there, she said — at the president’s request — to “observe” and “say thank you to the FBI agents.” Trump has offered inconsistent explanations for her presence but said last month that he did not know why she was there.
Gabbard’s career — which has included serving four terms in the House of Representatives as a Democrat representing a district in Hawaii — has been marked by contradictions. She renounced her party affiliation in 2022 and swiftly endorsed a slew of Republican candidates in the midterm elections. In 2024, Trump said he was considering her as a running mate before picking then-Sen. JD Vance. She subsequently joined his presidential transition team.
Gabbard’s patriotism has also been called into question during her time in national politics, as she publicly staked out positions at odds with U.S. intelligence consensus and expressed warm views on Russian President Vladimir Putin and deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Yet despite serious misgivings from Democrats and Republicans, Gabbard was confirmed as director of national intelligence in February 2025.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Jake Traylor is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
Jacqueline Alemany is co-anchor of "The Weekend" and a Washington correspondent for MS NOW.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.