Tulsi Gabbard resigns as US Director of National Intelligence making her husband’s health her top priority

Tulsi Gabbard’s decision to step down as U.S. Director of National Intelligence is understandable, given the circumstances.

Nevertheless, there are those in the press and American politics attributing this news to her falling out of favour with President Trump and senior members of his administration. 

Some say she was always going to be the next to go, and now she is the fourth member to leave the Trump Cabinet in the last three months, including Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem and Lori-Chavez-DeRemer.

Those delighting in her announcement have totally misread the situation. He husband has cancer and as a dutiful wife, she has chosen to make him her top priority and care for him. 

Instead of commending Tulsi for her decency, the knives have come out and are being plunged into her back.

Tulsi Gabbard took office as Director of National Intelligence in February 2025. She once was a Democratic Party candidate for President and chose to leave the party and join the Republicans. She has been a staunch ally of President Trump, though not fulsome in her support of U.S. conflicts in both Venezuela and Iran.

Her demeanour is always calm, and she is not given to braggadocio or verbosity. In this regard, she stands out from many women in the Cabinet and among Trump’s operatives.

“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve my country as Director of National Intelligence but my husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.

“I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position.”

Any reasonable person would understand her position here. President Trump was gracious, said she did a good job and wished her husband a speedy recovery.

There are no political points to be scored here. Tulsi Gabbard walking away is not down to sinister political machinations or that she vexed her boss, President Trump.

Perhaps this is for the better. These are polarising times, and American politics has become increasingly confrontational. Tulsi Gabbard is more left of centre, a humanist, one can say. She is not quick to draw her sword from its scabbard. 

Best take time, care for Abraham while keeping an eye on the political climate. See to it that Abraham is made comfortable, that he recovers before stepping back into the political arena.  By then, the cauldron may have cooled, with the playing field becoming more amenable to her disposition. 

Republicans who may be in the ascendancy might feel she was a Trump appointee and so made her bed. They could choose to freeze her out. Democrats may well want to court her, implore her to return home and take her place in a more moderate administration where she can thrive with less chaos to contend with. 

All this with Abraham getting back on his feet. 

The stick that is being used to beat her is that she was never a part of the Trump inner circle, that she was not a part of the briefings on both Venezuela and Iran, and that she was marginalised and given very little autonomy.

Founder and executive director of the National Security Institute said of Tulsi Gabbard: “She came into it (Director of National Intelligence) with limited experience. She had some military experience, of course, but limited experience in the intelligence field. Her reputation preceded her in terms of her relationship with staff and her views on information from Russia and the like. But even when she got to the Trump administration, she faced challenges.” 

Tulsi Gabbard has drawn attention to escalating nuclear tensions and the existential threat nuclear weapons pose to humankind.  In a released video last year, she said: “ This isn’t some made-up science fiction story. This is the reality of what is at stake, what we are facing now, because as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elites and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers.”