Tulsi Gabbard’s resistance to foreign wars amid Trump’s aggression was her undoing | Mohamad Bazzi

The director of national intelligence was sidelined as the president abandoned his pose as the ‘candidate of peace’

Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, stayed loyal to Donald Trump until the end – and nurtured the president’s grievances against his political enemies.

Last year, she accused Barack Obama and several of his top national security officials https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/18/tulsi-gabbard-2016-election-investigation-00463779">of leading a “treasonous conspiracy” to highlight Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In January, Gabbard showed up https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/29/tulsi-gabbard-georgia-fbi-elections-raid">at the scene of an FBI raid in Georgia where officials sought ballots from the 2020 election, even though her role is mainly focused on foreign intelligence.

On Friday, Gabbard submitted her resignation to Trump, saying she would leave her post on 30 June, so she could support her husband after he was recently diagnosed with cancer.

News reports quickly emerged that the White House https://www.reuters.com/world/us/gabbard-resigns-trumps-national-intelligence-director-fox-news-digital-reports-2026-05-22/">had forced Gabbard to resign.

The https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/02/trump-tulsi-gabbard-intelligence-chief">Guardian reported last month that Trump had privately asked cabinet members whether he should replace her from the post that oversees 18 US intelligence agencies.

Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University