WASHINGTON DC -- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Friday that she’s resigning at the end of June, citing her husband’s diagnosis with cancer.

“Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026,” she wrote in a letter President Donald Trump. “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. 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.”

Trump quickly praised Gabbard and announced Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Aaron Lukas will serve as acting director of national intelligence.

“Her wonderful husband, Abraham, has been recently diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, and she, rightfully, wants to be with him, bringing him back to good health as they currently fight a tough battle together,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that Gabbard has done “an incredible job, and we will miss her.”

Over the last few weeks, White House officials heard rumors that Gabbard was planning to leave. But as of two weeks ago, she was denying she was leaving the administration, a senior administration official said. On Friday, Gabbard met with Trump to deliver the letter, according to a source familiar.

In her letter to Trump, Gabbard said she couldn’t let her husband face the diagnosis on his own.

“Abraham has been my rock throughout our eleven years of marriage —standing steadfast through my deployment to East Africa on a Joint Special Operations mission, multiple political campaigns, and now my service in this role. His strength and love have sustained me through every challenge. I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position,” she wrote.

Gabbard’s tenure has been riddled with contradictory and confusing messaging, particularly on the US war with Iran, which at times put her out of favor with the White House.

Gabbard will be the latest Cabinet member to depart, following Trump’s recent ousters of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“While we have made significant progress at the ODNI — advancing unprecedented transparency and restoring integrity to the intelligence community — I recognize there is still important work to be done,” Gabbard wrote in her letter to the president, noting that she’s committed to facilitating a smooth transition.

At odds with Trump over Iran

Gabbard’s messaging on Iran had at times been at odds with the White House’s claims and justifications, beginning months before the war started in late February.

CNN reported in June 2025 — days before the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities — that multiple people inside the West Wing had grown disillusioned with Gabbard’s performance, with Trump seeing her as “off message” regarding the Israel-Iran conflict, according to one senior White House adviser.

Trump’s annoyance peaked earlier that month when Gabbard posted a video warning that the world was “closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before” and blaming “political elite and warmongers” for stoking “fear and tensions between nuclear powers.”

Trump viewed the video as a thinly veiled criticism of his consideration to allow Israel to strike Iran, and many inside the White House agreed Gabbard was speaking out of turn, a source told CNN at the time.

Later that month, Trump publicly rebuked his intel chief’s testimony to Congress that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon, telling reporters, “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having it.” The same day, Trump greenlit US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, known as Operation Midnight Hammer.

After the US-Israeli war against Iran began in February of this year, Trump and administration officials attempted to justify the conflict by claiming Iran was rebuilding its nuclear program after those June 2025 strikes and posed an imminent threat.

However, in her prepared remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee less than a month later, Gabbard said, “As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer (in June), Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability.”

She did not read that portion of her prepared remarks during the congressional hearing. Pressed on why, she said it was because her “time was running long” but said, “yes” when asked whether that remained the assessment of the intelligence community.

During that hearing, Gabbard also refused to say whether Iran posed an imminent threat, instead saying, “The only person who can determine what is and is not a threat is the president.”

“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” she added.

Gabbard’s top counterterrorism official, Joe Kent, resigned less than three weeks into the war, citing misgivings about the conflict and saying Iran did not pose an “imminent threat.”

Gabbard distanced herself from Kent, and when asked during a House hearing whether she found his comments concerning, Gabbard said, “Yes.”

Gabbard, who serves in the Army Reserves, is a former Democratic congresswoman who represented Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District, making history as the first American Samoan and practicing Hindu in Congress. She ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, touting herself as an Iraq War veteran with an anti-interventionist foreign policy, before leaving the party two years later.

She went on to endorse Trump in 2024, campaigning with him and helping him prepare for his debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Gabbard joined the GOP before the election and served on Trump’s transition team after he won. Trump tapped her to serve as director of national intelligence, the top post overseeing the 18 agencies that make up the intelligence community.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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