Tulsi Gabbard holds the nation's top intelligence title, but she was kept out of the loop on one of the Trump administration's biggest covert actions: the operation targeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. According to multiple people familiar with the matter, White House officials began excluding the director of national intelligence from Venezuela planning as far back as last summer, even as they drafted military options and deployed CIA assets around Caracas, the Wall Street Journal reports. Trump deliberately narrowed the circle of officials read into the mission, a senior administration official said, adding that the president decided she didn't need to be briefed. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was among those who wanted her on the sidelines.
Vice President JD Vance has publicly denied that Gabbard had been frozen out, saying planning was limited to "senior cabinet-level officials and related officials," while another administration official insisted her office still provided analytical support. The decision to freeze her out of the meetings was widely in the White House that aides joked that DNI, the acronym for her title, also stood for "Do Not Invite," per Bloomberg; another White House official disputed that account. An Iraq War veteran, Gabbard has for years spoken against US interventions in other countries, per the Washington Post, and she said in 2019 that the US should "stay out of Venezuela."
Gabbard has clashed with Trump on issues including Iran's nuclear program, testifying in March that US intelligence did not believe Tehran was building a weapon. Trump later said she was wrong, adding, "I don't care what she said." She also posted a video about her visit to Hiroshima, Japan, in which she criticized "political elite warmongers" that irked administration officials considering their next step on Iran. Usually a public supporter of Trump's actions, on social media and Fox News, Gabbard didn't post for three days after the raid on Caracas, per the Journal. She then praised Trump and the military personnel who carried out the mission.
She has won presidential favor at times, particularly when declassifying documents tied to the Russia probe and moving to revoke the clearances of dozens of current and former officials she accused of politicizing intelligence. But Trump has gradually turned more to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, current and former officials say. Ratcliffe stood with other close advisers at Trump's side in Florida last weekend as the president discussed the Venezuela operation. Gabbard was in Hawaii at the time. "President Trump has full confidence in his entire exceptional national-security team," said Steven Cheung, White House communications director.
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