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Tulsi Gabbard announced her resignation as the Director of National Intelligence of the United States on Friday, according to an exclusive report by Fox News following a meeting in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump.
The resignation, which Gabbard personally notified Trump about during that meeting, will take effect on June 30, 2026, according to the resignation letter that the official submitted to the president.
The reason is strictly personal and familial: Gabbard's husband, Abraham Williams, was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer, and the Director of Intelligence decided to step down to dedicate herself to supporting him during the treatment of this serious illness.
"Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, which will take effect on June 30, 2026," Gabbard wrote in her resignation letter, as detailed by Fox News.
As the Director of National Intelligence, Gabbard coordinated the 18 intelligence agencies of the country, the highest-ranking position in the entire U.S. intelligence community.
The Senate had confirmed her on February 12, 2025 with a narrow vote of 52 to 48, with almost the entire Republican bloc in favor and a single Republican vote against: that of Senator Mitch McConnell, who expressed his concerns about the nominee's profile.
His appointment was considered unconventional from the very beginning.
Former Democrat and ex-Congresswoman from Hawaii between 2013 and 2021, Gabbard ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and had supported Bernie Sanders' candidacy in 2016, breaking with the official line of her party. She left the Democratic Party in 2022 and gradually moved closer to Trump.
The confirmation sparked resistance both within and outside the Republican Party due to comments perceived as favorable to Russia, his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his public defense of Edward Snowden, the former contractor of the National Security Agency who leaked classified documents abroad.
Before her political career, Gabbard served in the Hawaii National Guard and had military deployments in Iraq and Kuwait, a background that her supporters cited as a credential for the position.
During her tenure at the head of the intelligence community, Gabbard was involved in several significant episodes. Among them was the declassification of documents regarding the impeachment process of Trump in 2019, in which she stated that there were irregularities based on indirect testimonies and sources with potential political biases.
She was also evacuated alongside Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth during the shooting that occurred at the Correspondents' Dinner held in Washington on April 26, an incident that highlighted the security protocols for high-ranking officials.
Gabbard married Abraham Williams in April 2015. The couple has not made any additional public statements regarding the medical diagnosis beyond what is mentioned in the resignation letter.
Her departure raises the question of who will lead the U.S. intelligence community at a time of heightened geopolitical tension, with ongoing negotiations with Iran, active conflicts on multiple international fronts, and the intelligence community undergoing significant restructuring under the Trump administration.
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