The head of American intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is leaving the Trump administration. “Unfortunately, I have to submit my effective resignation by June 30,” she wrote in a letter addressed to Donald Trump and published on the social network X, explaining that she has to leave the administration due to the health condition of her husband, filmmaker Abraham Williams, who has bone cancer.
The American press reported that she was at odds with Donald Trump due to comments about Iran. She notably refused during a parliamentary hearing in March to confirm the White House’s official position that Iran posed an “imminent threat,” which, in the eyes of the Trump administration, justified the American-Israeli strikes that triggered the war in the Middle East.
She was leading the highly sensitive National Intelligence Directorate (DNI), the agency that oversees all intelligence agencies, since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
There are only three female ministers left in the Trump administration
If the president’s team has long remained stable, it has recently experienced several changes in a short period of time, with the departures in three months of Justice Minister Pam Bondi, Interior Security Minister Kristi Noem, and Labor Minister Lori Chavez-DeRemer. All have been replaced by men, and before Tulsi Gabbard’s announced departure, the Trump government had four women out of a total of 21 ministers or top federal officials.
Her appointment was strongly criticized by the opposition, particularly for her pro-Russian stances. The American president praised Tulsi Gabbard’s “incredible work” at the helm of the DNI. “Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her,” he added, stating that she would be replaced by her deputy Aaron Lukas, appointed Acting Director of National Intelligence.
Pro-Russian positions
At 45 years old, this former military member who was deployed in Iraq had to face hostility from opposition lawmakers during the nomination process and skepticism from some Republican senators. She is notably criticized for meeting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in 2017 or endorsing Kremlin arguments to justify the war in Ukraine. Her support for whistleblower Edward Snowden, behind damaging revelations for American intelligence services, has also been criticized.
Tulsi Gabbard is also known for statements that have shocked Washington institutions, including criticisms of her country’s military interventionism for decades. During Donald Trump’s first term, she openly criticized a strike that killed Iranian leader Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. Tulsi Gabbard dramatically left the Democratic Party in 2022, accusing the party of being “an elitist warmongering woke clique” fueling “anti-white racism.”
