Tulsi Gabbard resigned as PresidentDonald Trump's director of national intelligence on Friday, saying she needed to step away as her husband battlescancer. She is the fourth Cabinet official todepart during Trumps second term.

In her resignation letter, which she posted on social media, Gabbard said she told Trump she would leave office on June 30. She said her husband had recently been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months.

At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle, she wrote in the letter, which was earlier reported byFox News.

Trump, in his own social media post announcing her resignation, said Tulsi has done an incredible job, and we will miss her. He said her principal deputy, Aaron Lukas, will serve as acting director of national intelligence.

During Trumps first term, Lukas was as an intelligence aide to the acting director of national intelligence, Ric Grenell, in 2020. A former policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, he also served as deputy senior director forEuropeandRussiaat the National Security Council in the final year of Trumps previous administration.

There had been rumblings that Gabbard would split with Trump after the president's decision to strikeIran, which caused some division within his administration. Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation in March, saying he cannot in good conscience back the war.

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Gabbard, a veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, built her political name on her opposition to foreign wars. This put her in an awkward position when the US joinedIsraelin launching attacks on Iran on February 28.

During a congressional hearing in March, her measured comments were notable for their careful non-endorsement of Trumps decision to strike Iran. She repeatedly dodged questions about whether theWhite Househad been warned of potential fallout from the conflict, including Irans effective closure of theStrait of Hormuz.

Contradicting Trump

Gabbard said in written remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee that there had been no effort by Iran to rebuild its nuclear capability after US attacks last year obliterated its nuclear program. That statement contradicted Trump, who has repeatedly asserted that the war was necessary to head off an imminent threat from the Islamic Republic.

This created several awkward exchanges with lawmakers who asked Gabbard for her opinion on the threat posed by Iran as the nations top intelligence official. She repeatedly said it was Trumps decision to strike, not hers.

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It is not the intelligence communitys responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat, she said.

Gabbards departure follows Trump having ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in late March, in the midst of mounting criticism over her leadership of the department including the handling of the administrationsimmigrationcrackdown and disaster response.

The second Cabinet member toleave was Attorney General Pam Bondi, in response to growing frustration over the Justice Departments handling of files related toJeffrey Epstein. And Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned in April, after being the target of various misconduct investigations.

A veteran but without any intelligence experience, Gabbard was a surprising choice to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the nations 18 intelligence agencies. She ran for president in 2020 on a progressive platform and her opposition to US involvement in foreign military conflicts.

Citing hermilitaryexperience, she argued that US wars in theMiddle Easthad destabilised the region, made the US less safe and cost thousands of American lives. Gabbard later dropped out of the race and endorsed the ultimate winner, PresidentJoe Biden.

Democratic roots

Two years later she left theDemocratic Partyto become an independent, saying her old party was dominated by an elitist cabal of warmongers and woke ideologues. She subsequently campaigned for several high-profile Republicans and became a contributor to Fox News.

She later endorsed Trump, who also was a strong critic of past US wars in the Middle East and campaigned on a pledge to avoid unnecessary wars and nation-building overseas.

But friction with the president started soon after he began his second term and tapped Gabbard to lead ODNI, which was set up after the September 11, 2001, attacks to improve coordination between the nations intelligence agencies.

Shortly after taking on the job, Gabbard testified before lawmakers that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran was seeking to developnuclear weapons. After Trump launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June he said Gabbard was wrong and that he didnt care what she said.

She appeared to be back in Trumps good graces when she took a lead role in Trumps effort to relitigate his 2020 election loss to Biden, whom Gabbard had endorsed. She appeared at anFBIsearch of election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, even though her office was created to focus on foreignespionage, not state elections.

Earlier this week, however, she testified to lawmakers during an annual threats hearing that last years strikes on Irans nuclear sites had obliterated their nuclear program and that there had been no subsequent effort to rebuild.

The statement seemed to complicate Trumps repeated assertions that Iran posed an imminent threat and created several awkward exchanges with lawmakers who asked Gabbard for her opinion on Irans threat as the nations top intelligence official. She repeatedly said that it was Trumps decision to strike, not hers.

It is not the intelligence communitys responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat, she said at one of this weeks hearings.

Politicising intelligence

Gabbard vowed to eliminate what she said was the politicization of intelligence by government insiders. But she quickly used her office to support some of Trumps most partisan of arguments that he won the 2020 election.

She also worked to undermine the results of earlier investigations into Trumps ties toRussia.

In her year on the job, Gabbard oversaw a sharp reduction in the intelligence workforce, as well as the creation of a new task force that she charged with considering big changes to the intelligence service.

Earlier this year an intelligence sector whistleblower filed a complaint that Gabbard was withholding intelligence for political reasons, a complaint that prompted calls from Democrats for Gabbards resignation.

Gabbard, 44, was born in the US territory of American Samoa, raised in Hawaii and spent a year of her childhood in thePhilippines. She was first elected as a 21-year-old to Hawaiis House of Representatives but had to leave after one term when her National Guard unit deployed toIraq.

As the first Hindu member of the House, Gabbard was sworn into office with her hand on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu devotional work. She was also the first American Samoan elected to Congress.

During her four House terms she became known for speaking out against her partys leadership. Her early support for Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 Democratic presidential primary run made her a popular figure in progressive politics nationally.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

Originally published on France24