Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard will resign next month after a 16-month tenure leading the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
An ODNI spokesperson confirmed her departure, set for June 30, in an email to MeriTalk on May 22, citing Gabbard’s husband’s diagnosis with an extremely rare form of bone cancer as the reason for her resignation.
In a letter posted to X, Gabbard said she “must step away from public service to be by … [her husband’s] side and fully support him through this battle.”
Following her departure, Aaron Lukas, the current principal deputy director of national intelligence, will serve as acting director of national intelligence, according to a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump.
Gabbard was confirmed to lead ODNI in February 2025 and has since overseen a significant overhaul of the intelligence community (IC).
Some of those changes included changing how the IC buys open-source intelligence, which Gabbard had criticized as having outdated procurement rules that slowed innovation and favored large contractors over startups. Gabbard also oversaw increased integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into ODNI.
Most recently, the ODNI director said her department’s execution of Trump’s cyber strategy was the IC’s largest-ever technology modernization effort and included AI adoption, zero trust implementation, cloud consolidation with the Pentagon, automated threat hunting, and upgrades to networks and data centers.
Gabbard also oversaw a significant staffing reduction at ODNI, dropping the workforce from a peak of nearly 2,000 employees by 20% last year.
Gabbard is the latest Cabinet official to leave the Trump administration in the past few months. She follows the departures of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi.