Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is resigning from her post.

Gabbard is stepping down after her husband of 11 years, Abraham Williams, was recently diagnosed with “an extremely rare form of bone cancer,” according to a resignation letter she posted to social media.

In the letter to President Donald Trump, Gabbard said Williams “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 wrote.

Her resignation is effective June 30, 2026, according to the letter.

Trump confirmed in a social media post that Gabbard will be resigning from her position, praising her for having done an “incredible job” and adding that the administration will “miss her.” 

The president added that Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas will serve as acting DNI. 

The news of Gabbard’s departure was first reported by Fox News.

Her departure marks the latest Cabinet-level shakeup of Trump’s second term after departures by former Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this year.

Gabbard ends a tenure marked by two major conflicts abroad, politically charged election-related investigations at home and the unresolved tension between the anti-war message that first defined her rise in politics and the national security office she later came to hold. 

Gabbard was an unconventional pick to lead the sprawling network of 18 intelligence agencies with a $100 billion budget.

The former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and onetime Democratic presidential candidate broke with her party, moved into Trump’s orbit during his 2024 campaign and joined the Republican Party.

Gabbard leaves office after months of scrutiny over the Iran war, the administration’s military escalation in Venezuela, the resignation of National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent over Iran and continuing fallout from the administration’s 2020 election investigations, including the Fulton County, Georgia, probe.

In the position, Gabbard played a critical role in determining what material is included in the president’s daily intelligence briefings.

But months into the administration, rifts began to form.

Gabbard posted a video in June to her personal account on X issuing a stark warning about the threat of nuclear war.

Opposition to U.S. intervention 

The administration’s military action against Venezuela stood in tension with her earlier opposition to U.S. intervention in other countries and her past criticism of regime-change efforts aimed at Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. 

Gabbard’s departure also follows the March resignation of Kent, the Trump administration’s top counterterrorism official, who reported directly to her at ODNI and announced he could not “in good conscience” support the Iran war. 

In a resignation letter posted publicly on social media, Kent said Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the U.S. and argued the administration had been pulled into war by Israel. Since leaving office, Kent has continued to say publicly that “Israel drove the decision” to strike Iran. 

Gabbard also leaves office amid continuing fallout from the administration’s investigations into the 2016 and 2020 elections, including the investigation in Georgia, where her role drew sharp scrutiny. 

Gabbard arranged for FBI agents who searched the Fulton County Elections and Operations Hub in January to have a phone call with Trump, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. 

The president, according to multiple sources, addressed the agents on speakerphone and said they were doing great work in searching and investigating Georgia’s elections. 

Fulton County officials say FBI agents removed 700 boxes containing ballots and other materials associated with the 2020 election after obtaining a search warrant approved by a federal magistrate judge. 

As part of the probe, investigators have gone ballot by ballot, searching for any irregularities, sources have told ABC. 

The Iran war is now in its 12th week after Trump announced in February that the U.S. and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran with the goal of eliminating Iran’s ambitions to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Gabbard’s 2025 congressional testimony came under renewed scrutiny this year as Democratic lawmakers pressed her on the intelligence community’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear program and Trump’s public pushback last summer. 

In that testimony, Gabbard said the intelligence community assessed that Iran was not “building” a nuclear weapon and that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.

Last that summer, ahead of the war’s start, Trump was asked to weigh in on Gabbard’s assessment.

“I don’t care what she said,” Trump replied at the time. “I think they were very close to having a weapon.”

Later, Trump again rebuked Gabbard and the intelligence community as “wrong” on Iran’s nuclear capability.

Gabbard came out after and said she and Trump were “on the same page” regarding Iran’s nuclear timeline and said her testimony was being misconstrued.

After the second time Trump said she was “wrong,” Gabbard posted on X, “America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly. President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree.”

In March, Rep. Jimmy Gomez pressed Gabbard on remarks she made last year that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and Trump’s public pushback at the time.

Gabbard said in the exchange that “context matters” and she “stand[s] by the intelligence community assessment.”