Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her position Friday after months of simmering tensions with President Donald Trump over the Iran war.
Officially, Gabbard said she made the decision to leave because her husband is suffering from a rare form of bone cancer. But reports are already saying she was squeezed out. Some would have preferred she resigned in protest like her former colleague Joe Kent. Still, there is a general consensus among her supporters that she had been sidelined for not kowtowing to the pro-Iran war line, and that it is better to leave with one’s dignity intact than to continue to toil away ineffectually in what may be a sinking ship.
“It’s not clear if she resigned from moral protest, or familial duty, or was ousted. It’s likely an admixture,” Curt Mills, executive director of the American Conservative, told RS.
“Regardless, as with the more explicit example set by Joe Kent, the principle is clear. Anyone of influence in this administration — with the exception of the vice president, who could become the president and halt this nightmare, and whose seat is constitutionally guaranteed — and who opposes its most serious and most grievous decision, the war with Iran, should have resigned yesterday.”
He added ominously, “Gabbard wasn’t ‘in the room’ at any room. And there is no power or glory in sitting in a waiting room for no reason.”
Gabbard’s office appeared to be at odds with the president over the need to go to war with Iran. When asked during a hearing in March whether Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, as the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed, Gabbard punted. “The only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president,” she said.
Before Operation Midnight Hammer, her office said Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon, which was in line with consistent intelligence taking back to 2007. Her statements did not sit well with Trump nor the hardliners in his administration, and likely started the clock ticking on her time in office.
Kent told RS that their office had been “closed off” from the president and the war, and it had been frustrating. He has consistently blamed pro-Israel voices in the president’s inner circle, though he “doesn’t want to let the president off the hook.” Kent’s experiences jibe with other realists in the administration who have been smeared and silenced. Some before they even made it into positions. Driving this campaign have been outlets like Jewish Insider and neoconservative influencers like Laura Loomer and Mark Levin.
“After the 12-day war, after Midnight Hammer, it seemed like the circle shrunk down to just the president and a handful of advisors. The NSC (National Security Council) process seemed to be dead. We were kind of just talking to ourselves. It wasn't reaching the Oval Office,” Kent said. “And then once the (February) war started, I myself and others worked diligently for two weeks trying to present the President with kind of off-ramps, but our ideas really weren't even reaching the White House.”
Prior to her resignation, Gabbard was among the most prominent anti-war voices within the administration. Like Kent, she is an Iraq War veteran. She spent time in Congress (as a Democrat) fighting for fellow veterans and was vocal about not getting in more “regime change wars” in the future. She ran for president and withstood a withering backlash in her party for running against the party apparatus on issues of war and peace. Hillary Clinton said she was “groomed by Russia” because she wasn’t toeing the line on the Ukraine War.
She found a political home in MAGA, and it seemed a real coup for realists and restrainers to have her in the administration, but alas, she did not have the support of Trump and was clearly never embraced by his inner circle, which had become more and more distanced from the president’s prior pledges to keep the country out of war.
Nevertheless, Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials largely responded to the news of Gabbard’s resignation with well wishes for her husband. Trump himself gave no indication that he was at odds with Gabbard, saying in a Truth Social post that she did an “incredible job” in her role.
When asked this week if he expected any other high profile resignation in protest, Kent said he hoped so. “I mean, part of my calculus for leaving government, as opposed to staying, was that I knew that I would reach (Trump) and reach decision makers more effectively from outside, because we had kind of hit our limit of effectiveness going through official channels.”
One can only hope that Gabbard eventually comes to the same conclusion and doesn’t stay quiet for long.