(A)Political - May 23rd

Good morning everyone,

It’s been a wild week on Capitol Hill. Let’s dive in!

The head of DNI resigned following cancer diagnosis of her husband. Trump convened with senior military leaders to assess new strike options towards Iran. The DNC has belatedly released their ‘autopsy’ report of the 2024 election loss

• DNI Head Tulsi Gabbard Resigns

• Trump Considers New Iran Strikes

• DNC Releases ‘Autopsy’ Of 2024 Election

DNI Head Tulsi Gabbard Resigns

_{By: Atlas}

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump on Friday, citing her husband's recent diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer. Her last day in office will be June 30.

Gabbard told Trump of her decision in an Oval Office meeting Friday afternoon and posted her resignation letter to X shortly after. "My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer," she wrote. "He 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."

Gabbard and her husband, Abraham Williams, have been married for eleven years. She thanked Trump for "the trust you placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for the last year and a half."

Trump accepted the resignation in a post on Truth Social. "Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her," he wrote, wishing Williams a "speedy recovery." Principal Deputy Director Aaron Lukas, a former CIA officer who served on the National Security Council during Trump's first term, will serve as acting director.

Gabbard is the fourth Cabinet-level official to depart the second Trump administration this year — and all four have been women. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was removed in late March, Attorney General Pam Bondi in April, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer also in April.

Friction Over Iran

While Gabbard framed the move as a personal decision, she had been at odds with the White House for months over the war with Iran. The conflict, which began on February 28, has divided the administration and prompted earlier exits from senior officials who shared Gabbard's longtime skepticism of foreign military intervention.

In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee in March, Gabbard repeatedly declined to characterize Iran's nuclear program as an imminent threat. She told lawmakers that determining imminence was the president's call rather than the intelligence community's, and her written remarks said there had been no effort by Iran to rebuild its nuclear capability after earlier U.S. strikes. Trump publicly rebuked her, saying he did not care what she said.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that Gabbard had been forced out and that the White House had been "unhappy with her for quite some time." White House spokesman Davis Ingle said her departure was driven by her husband's diagnosis. In March, Trump told reporters Gabbard was "softer" than he was on Iran's nuclear ambitions, and in April Reuters reported she could lose her position in a broader cabinet shakeup.

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center under Gabbard, resigned in March over the Iran strikes, saying Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation." Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, who served as deputy director of national intelligence for policy and capabilities, stepped down days before Gabbard's resignation, also over Iran. The FBI has since opened an investigation into Kent over alleged improper sharing of classified information.

By the spring, Gabbard had been visibly absent from major White House national security deliberations — including the Iran war, the operation that deposed former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and Cuba policy — with Trump instead leaning heavily on CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

A Year and a Half at ODNI

Gabbard's eighteen months running the office that oversees the country's 18 intelligence agencies were unusually combative. She arrived without a traditional intelligence background, and she used the post to advance Trump priorities that previous DNIs had kept at arm's length.

Her office cut its workforce by 40 percent and claimed roughly $700 million in annual savings. She dismantled diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and stood up what she called a Weaponization Working Group to investigate alleged political abuses inside the intelligence community. She revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan.

She oversaw the declassification of more than 500,000 pages of historical records, including files related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also released a memo accusing Obama-era intelligence officials of a "treasonous conspiracy" to manufacture intelligence about the 2016 election. The memo focused on the absence of any indication Russia had directly altered vote totals — a finding consistent with prior intelligence community and Senate conclusions, neither of which had asserted that votes were changed.

She also appeared in person at an FBI search of an election center in Fulton County, Georgia, even though her office is responsible for foreign intelligence rather than domestic election matters. While on scene she called Trump and put him on speakerphone so the president could speak with agents at the location.

Last week, the CIA reclaimed roughly 40 boxes of sensitive documents from the ODNI, including materials related to the Kennedy assassination and the MKUltra program. Some lawmakers described the move as a "raid"; Gabbard's office disputed that characterization.

Reaction and a Possible Replacement

Reaction on Capitol Hill split along familiar lines. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the role itself had become politicized and that "this position now more than ever needs to be an independent, experienced intelligence professional." Sen. Adam Schiff of California was sharper, writing that "Tulsi Gabbard's only positive contribution to our nation's national security is her resignation."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, an Arkansas Republican, praised Gabbard's "critical support" in pushing for the declassification of materials related to the Trump-Russia investigation. "She leaves a strong legacy behind at ODNI," he said. Some Republican senators have publicly floated Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York as a possible permanent successor.

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, was a surprising pick when Trump tapped her for the job. She ran for president in 2020 on a progressive, anti-interventionist platform, left the Democratic Party in 2022, and endorsed Trump in 2024 before joining the Republican Party. She was the first Hindu member of Congress and the first American Samoan elected to the House.

Whoever succeeds her at ODNI will inherit the office at a sensitive moment, with the U.S. still engaged in Iran and the White House reportedly considering additional military action. Lukas, the acting director, will lead the office in the interim.

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