WASHINGTON — President Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were the result of 15 years of intel work, the Pentagon said Thursday — but Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard curiously was missing from key moments before and after the raid.
The ex-Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii — an outspoken opponent of US military intervention in the Middle East — now faces the perception that she’s being shunted to the side by the commander-in-chief, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who previously held her job, taking on a larger profile.
Gabbard, 44, was missing from an intelligence briefing with Congress on Thursday, where Ratcliffe gave lawmakers classified details of the Saturday strike.
She also was excluded from a June 8 national security pow-wow at Camp David, where Trump began to shape his plans for Iran with Ratcliffe and other key leaders, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Two days after that meeting — to which administration officials told Fox News Gabbard was not invited — she released what one person close to the administration described as a “fear-mongering” video on the dangers of nuclear war, in what was seen as a swipe against a preemptive strike.
“That narrative played directly into the hands of those who did not support the president’s then-upcoming bold decision to obliterate Tehran’s nuclear program,” the source said.
The sentiment exemplified what an administration official who told The Post this week: “She’s been wrong on the big stuff.
Trump made headlines earlier this month when he twice split from his intelligence chief’s assessment that Iran wasn’t close to building nuclear bombs.
“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one,” Trump said of Gabbard while aboard Air Force One on June 17.
Gabbard endorsed Trump last year largely on foreign policy grounds after repeatedly slamming mainstream Democrats and pre-Trump Republicans for promoting regime change abroad.
As a Democratic presidential primary candidate in 2020, she hawked T-shirts reading “No War With Iran” — launching them two days after Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Still, multiple insiders said they don’t believe Gabbard is in danger of getting fired — and a White House official who saw Gabbard Friday before she briefed Trump in the Oval Office detected no signs of tension, calling speculation that she’s on the ropes “bogus.”
Gabbard was among the senior leaders who joined Trump in the situation room during the daring bombing mission on Saturday. And internal disagreements among his aides often are welcomed by Trump, particularly on foreign policy.
Some sources, however, foresee her role being reduced as Ratcliffe, a former Texas Republican congressman, asserts more influence on intelligence strategy.
It comes as Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) seeks to cut Gabbard’s staff from roughly 1,600 to just 650, a senior Senate aide familiar with the proposed legislation told NBC News Friday.
Trump has been more hesitant to oust leaders in his administration this year than he was in his first term.
There have been no changes in his cabinet, aside from the rerouting of former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz to US ambassador to the United Nations, following his mistakenly adding a reporter to a Signal chat about air strikes in Yemen.
Gabbard’s office did not offer a comment for this story.
Additional reporting by Steven Nelson
