Is There A Rift Between Trump And Tulsi?

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India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence and once a vocal surrogate of his 2024 campaign, has ignited internal tensions in the White House over her opposition to escalating military conflict with Iran, according to a detailed report by Politico.

On June 10, Gabbard released an unapproved three-minute video message warning that “political elite and warmongers” are “carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers.” Her stark message — posted to social media without clearance — cautioned that the world was “on the brink of nuclear annihilation.” Politico reports that Trump was “incensed” when he saw it.

The timing of Gabbard’s video was particularly provocative: it followed a private White House meeting between Trump and Israel hawks who were pushing him to support a military strike on Iran. In the eyes of several Trump aides and the president himself, Gabbard appeared to be publicly rebuking that advice.

“Tulsi’s video was seen as an attempt to correct the president,” a senior administration official told Politico. “And he hates being corrected — especially in public.”

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and a military veteran, has long opposed foreign entanglements — a posture that once mirrored Trump’s own campaign rhetoric. But as Politico notes, the president who vowed to end “forever wars” is now showing openness to broader U.S. engagement in the Middle East, leaving Gabbard increasingly isolated in her anti-interventionist stance.

That growing distance became more visible on June 17 aboard Air Force One, when Trump publicly dismissed a March assessment from Gabbard to Congress stating that Iran was not seeking a nuclear weapon. “I don’t care what she said,” Trump responded when asked by a reporter. “I think they were very close to having a weapon.” Politico highlights this moment as a sharp departure from the president’s past praise of Gabbard.

Politico reports that Trump has privately floated the idea of eliminating Gabbard’s post altogether. “He’s just been kind of down on her in general,” one source said, quoting Trump as saying she “doesn’t add anything to any conversation.”

Despite the mounting pressure, Gabbard remains defiant. “President Trump was saying the same thing that I said in my annual threat assessment back in March,” she told reporters this week, pointing to what she called a media failure to accurately reflect her statements.

Since her confirmation in February, Gabbard has cultivated an unusually public profile for a spy chief. She’s appeared frequently on conservative media, revoked security clearances of political opponents, and championed Trump’s agenda with enthusiasm. But Politico points out that her surprise solo visit to Hiroshima — which reportedly confused White House officials — may have been the first major sign that Gabbard wasn’t fully in lockstep with the administration’s evolving strategy.