Donald Trump has backed his National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard amid rumors she was about to quit after struggling to defend his war in Iran.
As the Middle East conflict escalated this week, Gabbard spent two days under intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill over how she advised the president about the risks posed by the Iranian regime and her past anti-interventionist views.
Testifying under oath, the military veteran and former Democrat repeatedly affirmed the president’s authority to decide whether Iran posed an “imminent threat,” while stopping short of endorsing the war itself.
But Gabbard’s hedging enraged some MAGA loyalists, some of whom insisted she was likely to quit, following in the footsteps of National Terrorism Director Joe Kent, who opposed the war.
“@TulsiGabbard’s political staff expect that she is about to RESIGN, following the resignation of her colleague @joekent16jan19,” wrote Trump loyalist Laura Loomer, who had earlier predicted Kent’s departure.
“President Trump should not allow Gabbard the dignity of a resignation, followed by her immediately trashing him on MSDNC, CNN, the View, and Tucker Carlson’s podcast,” she added.
But speaking before he left the White House on Friday afternoon, Trump sought to put an end to the rumor mill. Asked if Gabbard’s job was still safe, he replied: “I thought she did a good job yesterday, actually.”
He also insisted the war had effectively been won by the U.S.—even as the Pentagon sends three warships with thousands more Marines to the region, and is reportedly making “heavy preparations” for the use of ground troops.
“All they’re doing is clogging up the Strait,” Trump said, referring to the oil chokepoint that Iran is using as leverage to push up gas prices.
“But from a military standpoint, they’re finished.”
Trump officials have also told the Daily Beast that Gabbard had no plans to quit the administration. MAGA stalwart Roger Stone, an ally, also posted in response to Loomer: “This is 100 per cent FALSE.”
The war has nonetheless been a balancing act for Gabbard, a military veteran who served in the Hawaii Army National Guard and once warned that a conflict with Iran would make America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan “look like a picnic.”
Asked about those views during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, she admitted the cost of the war was “weighing on me” but added that “it is essential that I do not allow any of my personal views on any of these issues to color or bias any of the intelligence reporting that we deliver to you and to the president.”
Asked if she had advised the president that Iran was not an imminent nuclear threat, contrary to what he claimed to justify his attack, she replied: “It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and what is not an imminent threat” - a view that Democrats and intelligence analysts rejected.
Trump entered the conflict on Feb. 28, in a mission that has since killed at least 13 U.S servicemen and countless Iranian civilians caught in the crossfire.
The initial strikes also assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, but his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has since replaced him and vowed revenge.
In response, Iran has attacked energy infrastructure, targeted airports and residential centers, and disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, sparking a global oil crisis and more pain at the pump.
But despite declaring on Friday that the war had effectively been won, Trump continued to call on America’s allies to join the conflict and help him unblock the Strait.
“NATO could help us, but they so far haven’t had the courage to do so,” he told reporters before heading to his Mar-a-Lago resort for the weekend.
