Gabbard resigns as national intelligence director

The former Hawaii congresswoman found herself at odds with Trump over Iran war.

- MEG KINNARD, WILL WEISSERT AND DAVID KLEPPER

TOM WILLIAMS CQ-Roll Call TULSI GABBARD, a veteran and former Democrat known for her opposition to foreign wars, had avoided endorsing President Trump's decision to strike Iran.

Tulsi Gabbard resigned Friday as President Trump's director of national intelligence, saying she needed to step away as her husband battles cancer.

She is the fourth Cabinet official to depart during Trump's second term.

In her resignation letter, which she posted on social media, Gabbard said she told Trump she would leave office on June 30. She said her husband had recently been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and “faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months.”

“At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle,” she wrote in the letter, which was earlier reported by Fox News.

In his social media post announcing her resignation, Trump said “Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her.” He said her principal deputy, Aaron Lukas, will serve as acting director of national intelligence.

During Trump's first term, Lukas was as an intelligence aide to the acting director of national intelligence, Ric Grenell, in 2020. A former policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, he also served as deputy senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council in the final year of Trump's previous administration.

There had been rumblings that Gabbard would split with Trump after the president’s decision to strike Iran, which caused some division within his administration. Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation in March, saying he “cannot in good conscience” back the war.