June 19, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tulsi Gabbard was sworn in as President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence on Wednesday shortly after she was confirmed by the Senate.
Gabbard is an unconventional pick to oversee and coordinate the country's 18 intelligence agencies, given her past comments sympathetic to Russia, a meeting she held with now-deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad and her previous support for government leaker Edward Snowden.
A military veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, Gabbard was confirmed on Wednesday by a 52-48 vote, with the Senate's slim Republican majority beating back Democratic opposition. The only "no' vote from a Republican came from Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
She is the latest high-ranking nominee to win Senate confirmation as the new administration works to reshape vast portions of the federal government, including the intelligence apparatus.
Speaking after she was sworn in at the White House, Gabbard promised to work to “refocus” the intelligence community in line with Trump's vision.
“Unfortunately, the American people have very little trust in the intelligence community, largely because they’ve seen the weaponization and politicization of an entity that is supposed to be purely focused on ensuring our national security,” Gabbard said.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created to address intelligence failures exposed by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Republicans have increasingly criticized the office, saying it has grown too large and politicized. Trump himself has long viewed the nation’s intelligence services with suspicion.
At Gabbard's swearing-in ceremony Trump called her a "courageous and often lonely voice” and urged her to “just stay the way you are.”
“She’ll be clear-eyed and she’ll be focused on the threat of radical Islamic terrorism and lots of other threats too, threats from within," Trump said.
Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard who deployed twice to the Middle East and ran for president in 2020. She has no formal intelligence experience and has never run a government agency or department.
