Diyar Guldogan
19 June 2025•Update: 20 June 2025
WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump has come to see Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard as "off message" on the conflict in the Middle East, CNN reported Thursday.
Citing a senior White House adviser, CNN said Trump’s annoyance with Gabbard peaked earlier this month when she posted a three-minute video warning that the world is “closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before,” and blaming “political elite and warmongers” for stoking fear and tensions between nuclear powers.”
Trump viewed the video as a thinly veiled criticism of his consideration to allow Israel to strike Iran, and many inside the White House agreed Gabbard was speaking out of turn, CNN said, citing the adviser.
“When the president thinks you are off message, he doesn’t want you in the room,” the adviser was quoted.
Trump publicly distanced himself from Gabbard’s March congressional testimony where she told lawmakers that the US intelligence community "continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003."
“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late Monday, after leaving the G7 summit in Canada earlier than expected amid the heightened conflict between Israel and Iran.
Gabbard told reporters Tuesday that her March testimony aligned with Trump’s statements.
"What President Trump is saying is the same thing I said in my annual threat assessment in March to Congress," Gabbard was quoted. "Unfortunately, too many people in the media don't care to actually read what I said.”
Two administration officials told CNN that some officials in the White House have begun to question whether Gabbard has "fully grasped" what the job of DNI actually entails, with its oversight of the government’s sprawling intelligence community.
“It’s an enormous job," one official told CNN. "She is still very much learning the ropes — and all the various areas that DNI touches."
Gabbard was on National Guard duty when top national security officials met to discuss Israel’s plans to attack Iran, according to an administration official, CNN said.
Asked whether Gabbard’s job was at risk, a senior official said Trump was hesitant to fire anyone, given the optics.
“He’s not interested in firing her at this moment because she’s not doing any harm,” the official said, according to CNN. “I think he’s questioning her viewpoint as a value, especially after that video."
Regional tensions have escalated since last Friday, when Israel launched airstrikes on multiple sites across Iran, including military and nuclear facilities, prompting Tehran to launch retaliatory strikes.
