<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-president-donald-trump-says-gabbard-was-wrong-about-iran-and-israeli-strikes-could-be-very-hard-to-stop/4a645d1b-b277-4c04-9d16-e8a0708fd036" rel="" target="" title="Tulsi Gabbard"><span>Tulsi Gabbard</span></a><span> has resigned as </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="" title="President Donald Trump"><span>President Donald Trump</span></a><span>'s director of national intelligence, saying she needed to leave office as her husband battles cancer. She is the fourth Cabinet member to depart during Trump's second term, all of them women.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In her resignation letter, which she posted on social media, Gabbard said she told Trump she would leave her job overseeing the coordination of 18 intelligence agencies on June 30. She said her husband had recently been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and "faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle," she wrote in the letter, which was reported earlier by Fox News.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-news-president-may-miss-sons-wedding/737c7708-0a36-4fc4-ae0d-e8597fd4fa5b"><strong><span>'Not good timing for me': Trump may skip son's wedding</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump, in his own social media post, said "Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her." He said her principal deputy, Aaron Lukas, will serve as acting director of national intelligence.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While Gabbard says her departure is for personal reasons, the juxtaposition between her long-held, anti-interventionism stance and Trump's series of overseas military operations had seemed to put them on a collision course.</span></div></div><div class="tweet" data-tweet-id="2057876821421527476" data-user="9NewsAUS"></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Iran put Gabbard and Trump at odds</span></h2></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/tulsi-gabbard-resigns-as-director-of-national-intelligence-citing-her-husbands-health/2d7cc398-ea2c-4cc0-85dc-70c4fbfa2eef" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There had been rumblings that Gabbard would split with Trump after the </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/iran-war-vote-congress-house-of-representatives-senate-usa-politics-news/a816e23a-d2e8-479d-8bf0-a4076caf9588" rel="" target="" title="president's decision to strike Iran"><span>president's decision to strike Iran</span></a><span>, which caused some division within his administration. </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/joe-kent-tucker-carlson-interview-tulsi-gabbard-middle-east-iran-war-donald-trump-us-politics-news/b00c6b2b-d83f-46c9-b1ed-2dbb296dcc3a" rel="" target="" title="Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Centre"><span>Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Centre</span></a><span>, announced his resignation in March and said he "cannot in good conscience" back the war.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Gabbard, a veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, built her political name on her opposition to foreign wars. This put her in an awkward position when the US joined Israel in launching attacks on Iran on February 28.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>During a congressional hearing in March, her measured comments were notable for their careful non-endorsement of the Iran war. She repeatedly dodged questions about whether the White House had been warned of potential fallout from the conflict, including Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway crucial for global oil shipments.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Gabbard said in written remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee that there had been no effort by Iran to rebuild its nuclear capability after US attacks last year "obliterated" its nuclear programme. That statement contradicted Trump, who has repeatedly asserted that the war was necessary to head off an imminent threat from the Islamic Republic.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>This created several awkward exchanges with politicians who asked Gabbard for her opinion on the threat posed by Iran as the nation's top intelligence official. She repeatedly said it was Trump's decision to strike, not hers.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-news-donald-trump-drops-irs-lawsuit-as-department-of-justice-sets-up-fund-to-compensate-presidents-allies/7c04036a-a0a0-4058-8397-a17a5575c350"><strong><span>Capitol riot 'victims' to share in $2.48 billion compo bonanza</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Gabbard's departure follows Trump having ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in late March, in the midst of mounting criticism over her leadership of the department — including the handling of the administration's immigration crackdown and disaster response.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The second Cabinet member to leave was Attorney General Pam Bondi, in response to growing frustration over the Justice Department's handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. And Labour Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned in April, after being the target of various misconduct investigations.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lukas, who will be taking over for Gabbard, was an intelligence aide to the acting director of national intelligence, Ric Grenell, in 2020 during Trump's first term. A former policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, he also served as deputy senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council in the final year of Trump's previous administration.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>A surprising choice for the job</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A military veteran but without any intelligence experience, Gabbard was a surprising choice for director of national intelligence. She ran for president in 2020 on a progressive platform and her opposition to US involvement in foreign military conflicts.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Citing her military experience, she argued that US wars in the Middle East had destabilised the region, made the US less safe and cost thousands of American lives. Gabbard later dropped out of the race and endorsed the ultimate winner, President Joe Biden.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Two years later, she left the Democratic Party to become an independent, saying her old party was dominated by an "elitist cabal of warmongers" and "woke" ideologues. She subsequently campaigned for several high-profile Republicans and became a contributor to Fox News.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She later endorsed Trump, who also was a strong critic of past US wars in the Middle East and campaigned on a pledge to avoid unnecessary wars and nation-building overseas.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/donald-trump-china-warning-taiwan-warning-beijing-xi-jinping-world-news/af84902a-4097-4da8-a4af-1074d8bd66fb"><strong><span>Trump's soft stance during China visit alarms Taiwan and its US supporters</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Iran caused early tensions</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But friction with the president started soon after he began his second term and tapped Gabbard to lead ODNI, which was set up after the September 11, 2001, attacks to improve coordination between the nation's intelligence agencies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Shortly after taking on the job and before this year's war, Gabbard testified before politicians that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. After Trump launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites last June, he said Gabbard was wrong and that he didn't care what she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She appeared to be back in Trump's good graces when she took a lead role in Trump's effort to relitigate his 2020 election loss to Biden. She appeared at an FBI search of election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, even though her office was created to focus on foreign espionage, not state elections.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Gabbard made big changes in her time in office</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Gabbard vowed to eliminate what she said was the politicisation of intelligence by government insiders. But she quickly used her office to support some of Trump's most partisan arguments — that he won the 2020 election.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She also worked to undermine the results of earlier investigations into Trump's ties to Russia.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In her year on the job, Gabbard oversaw a sharp reduction in the intelligence workforce, as well as the creation of a new task force that she charged with considering big changes to the intelligence service.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Earlier this year, an intelligence sector whistleblower filed a complaint that Gabbard was withholding intelligence for political reasons, a complaint that prompted calls from Democrats for Gabbard's resignation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Gabbard, 44, was born in the US territory of American Samoa, raised in Hawaii and spent a year of her childhood in the Philippines. She was first elected as a 21-year-old to Hawaii's House of Representatives but had to leave after one term when her National Guard unit deployed to Iraq.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As the first Hindu member of the House, Gabbard was sworn into office with her hand on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu devotional work. She was also the first American Samoan elected to Congress.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>During her four House terms, she became known for speaking out against her party's leadership. Her early support for </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/tulsi-gabbard-to-run-for-us-president/92efbb57-387b-4ab7-85fd-c935a62f217f" rel="" target="" title="Sen. Bernie Sanders ' 2016 Democratic presidential primary"><span>Sen. Bernie Sanders ' 2016 Democratic presidential primary</span></a><span> run made her a popular figure in progressive politics nationally.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/iran-war-vote-congress-house-of-representatives-senate-usa-politics-news/a816e23a-d2e8-479d-8bf0-a4076caf9588"><strong><span>Trump comes one vote away from being forced to end war in Iran</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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