The turbulent 15 months of Trump’s unlikely US intelligence director | Trump administration
Tulsi Gabbard’s tumultuous 15-month tenure as the top U.S. intelligence official ended Friday, when Gabbard submitted her resignation as director of national intelligence.
Gabbard was an unusual choice for the role, given that she is a former Democrat with no significant intelligence background. His political views, especially regarding foreign intervention, have at times differed from those of Donald Trump. But he also, as the nation’s top intelligence chief, has engaged in norm-breaking actions that appear designed to flatter Trump and his election denial agenda.
Gabbard has been increasingly sidelined by the president, who has excluded her from key national security discussions on Iran and Venezuela, according to sources familiar with the office.
“He had been playing outside the inner circle for a while,” said Emily Harding, director of the Intelligence, National Security and Technology (INT) program. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Republican senator Tom Cotton at Gabbard’s confirmation hearing in January 2025 he told the former Hawaii representative. “The measure of your success will depend largely on whether you can return the ODNI.” [the office of the director of national intelligence] “We are returning to its original size, scope and mission.”
Some MPs believed the interagency co-ordination office had become bloated and unwieldy under its nearly 20-year tenure, and the Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy mandate, Project 2025, was pushing for dramatic reform.
Gabbard told MPs she would “address productivity, layoffs and effectiveness” across the sprawling 2,000-person agency. He claims to have reduced its staff by 30% since he took office and at least 100 employees accepted early retirement programs Offered in 2025 at both CIA and ODNI.
Gabbard also created a task force. reduce costs and research “armament” In the intelligence community. Director’s Initiatives Groupor DIG, examined Trump’s top priorities, including the origins of Covid-19, allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, and abnormal health events such as Havana syndrome.
The DIG was disbanded in December following an interagency discussion, with a final termination date set for June. It is not yet known whether the group has achieved its goals.
Like Trump, Gabbard demanded loyalty in her office. “He’s now very closely affiliated with a very close circle of people,” a person familiar with his office said earlier this year.
Chief among Gabbard’s confidants is Alexa Henning, acting chief of staff. The political appointee came to Washington from the office of Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, where she talked about herself. social media post as “one of the governor’s men.”
Henning demonstrated equal loyalty as Gabbard’s spokesperson leading up to her confirmation to head the ODNI. I dodge the questions. He denies claims about Gabbard’s ties to the Identity Science Foundation, a Hawaii-based religious cult, and that Gabbard sympathizes with dictators such as Vladimir Putin or former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
After Gabbard took office, Henning often adopted an aggressive and unconventional stance toward the media and other intelligence leaders, and repeatedly mocked Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman Mark Warner. in xAnd call out Republicans who did not support Gabbard’s bid to lead the intelligence center.
Trump first dismissed Gabbard’s contribution as intelligence chief in June 2025, during a joint Israeli and U.S. mission to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities and assassinate nuclear scientists inside the country. Reporters asked the president about Gabbard’s previous Senate testimony that Iran is not building nuclear weapons.
“I don’t care what he says. I think they’re very close to that,” Trump said he told reporters On Air Force One. The president had recently approved Israel’s decision to attack Iran.
Shortly after Trump’s rebuke, Gabbard backtracked and in question Iran could produce nuclear weapons “within weeks”. The incident highlighted tensions between a director of national intelligence who has long been skeptical of foreign intervention and a president who is moving toward more aggressive military action abroad.
In February, Trump came to Gabbard’s defense when she came under public scrutiny for participating in a raid on a polling station in Georgia’s Fulton County: The FBI conducted a surprise raid on the office in January and seized ballots and other materials related to Trump’s 2020 election. It was alleged that fraud had been rigged against him. Democrats expressed deep concern about Gabbard’s presence in the local law enforcement operation.
“When the nation’s top intelligence official inserts himself into a matter unconnected to a foreign threat, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the motive is political, that is, to curry favor with Donald Trump, and that his presence is intended to pave the way for baseless allegations of foreign interference,” Warner said. in question In that case.
But Trump seemed pleased with Gabbard. “He was very hot because he went to Pam’s two days ago. [Bondi, the former attorney general]”He persistently went in and looked at the votes that needed to be checked,” Trump said. parishioners were told at the National Prayer Breakfast. “Why is he doing this, right, Pam? Why is he doing it? Because Pam wanted him to do it. You know why? Because he’s smart.”
Weeks later, Gabbard once again strained her relationship with the president by not condemning the resignation of her former aide, Joe Kent, who resigned over Trump’s decision to declare war on Iran. “Iran did not pose an imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent wrote in his resignation letter.
After that, Trump began to question Gabbard’s leadership of the country’s intelligence agencies. The Guardian reported that Trump began polling cabinet members on whether to fire Gabbard in March. red flag For the people in the president’s administration.
Gabbard said Friday that she resigned from her position because her husband was diagnosed with a rare type of bone cancer. The resignation letter states that Gabbard will lead the ODNI until June 30. The White House appointed Aaron Lukas to replace him as acting director.
Trump did not comment at length on Gabbard’s resignation, but said in a statement Friday that Gabbard “did an incredible job and we will miss her.”
