The head of United States intelligence services, Tulsi Gabbard, announced on Friday her resignation, effective at the end of June, amid internal tensions within President Donald Trump's administration regarding the war with Iran.

Gabbard, a 45-year-old Iraq War veteran, has led the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)—the agency that oversees the massive U.S. espionage apparatus—since Trump's return to the White House last year.

“Regretfully, I must tender my resignation, effective June 30, 2026. My husband, Abraham, has been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer,” she wrote in a letter addressed to the president and published on the social media platform X. “At this time, I must step away from public service to stand by his side and fully support him in this battle,” she added.

The U.S. President immediately praised Gabbard's tenure at the helm of the ODNI. “Tulsi has done an incredible job and we are going to miss her,” Trump noted on his network, Truth Social, adding that her deputy, Aaron Lukas, will serve as Acting Director of National Intelligence.

Gabbard is the fourth woman to leave the Trump administration in three months, following Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

A former Democrat, Gabbard is known for questioning the intelligence community and opposing U.S. military interventions abroad.

U.S. media outlets had considered her departure a certainty. This expectation grew particularly after a congressional hearing in March, during which she refused to confirm Trump's statements asserting that Iran posed an “imminent threat” prior to the U.S. and Israeli bombings that triggered the war in the Middle East. At the time, she emphasized that the decision to launch the attacks was “the president's responsibility.”

Gabbard served in Iraq with the Army National Guard, was a congresswoman, and ran as a Democratic primary candidate for the U.S. presidency in 2020. Her pro-Russian stances and opposition to the war in Ukraine have also generated controversy.