On May 22, 2026, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told President Trump in a letter, which she posted on X, that she is resigning. She cited the diagnosis of her husband, Abraham Williams, with a serious and rare form of bone cancer. 'At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle,' she wrote. Her last day will be June 30. Trump responded on Truth Social that Gabbard had done 'an incredible job, and we will miss her.' Her deputy, Aaron Lukas, will serve as acting director.
The stated reason is a family medical crisis and is reported here as she stated it. The departure is also a notable administration event on two counts. First, Gabbard is the fourth Trump Cabinet member to leave in 2026, following Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an unusually high rate of senior turnover.
Second, she leaves behind one of the most contested intelligence tenures in the office's history. Gabbard was physically present at the FBI's January 2026 raid on Fulton County's election office, despite the DNI's role being foreign, not domestic, intelligence. Her office obtained voting machines from Puerto Rico in a probe that found no foreign interference. She referred an intelligence whistleblower for criminal prosecution after the whistleblower's complaint concerned NSA intercepts about Jared Kushner's influence on Iran policy. She declassified impeachment-related documents and made public statements that career officials said politicized the intelligence community. A senior aide in her office, Paul McNamara, was involved in the administration's failed effort to ban voting machines. The resignation removes from office a DNI whose conduct had been the subject of repeated oversight concern, for reasons unrelated to that record.