In three months, the US intelligence director becomes the fourth woman to leave the Trump administration
In a letter to Trump posted on X, Gabbard wrote that she was leaving her post to care for her husband after he was diagnosed with “a very rare form of bone cancer.”.
US intelligence
Gabbard has been in charge of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees all U.S. intelligence agencies, since Trump's return to the presidency early last year.
praised Trump Gabbard's performance, saying, "She did a great job and we will miss her," noting that her deputy, Aaron Lucas, would take over as acting director of national intelligence.
Differences in positions
Gabbard is the fourth woman to leave the Trump administration in three months, following Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Dermer.
American media outlets had predicted Gabbard's departure due to disagreements with Trump.
Her testimony during a congressional hearing in March contradicted Trump's statements that Iran posed an "imminent threat" before he launched the US-Israeli strikes that ignited the war in the Middle East.
Supporter of the Democratic Party
Gabbard, 45, is from Hawaii and was previously a supporter of the Democratic Party.
Her pro-Russian stance and support for the Kremlin's narrative regarding the war in Ukraine have sparked widespread controversy.
She has also been a vocal critic of the United States' decades-long tradition of unrestrained military intervention.
