President Donald Trump reportedly lashed out at Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard after she posted a haunting video about nuclear war.
Gabbard shared a three-minute video to social media platform X last week where she claimed “political elites” are escalating tensions between global nuclear powers. The video sparked widespread backlash as she warned that a nuclear weapon would kill millions of people and destroy the world’s ecosystem.
According to a new Politico report on Tuesday, Trump became “incensed” after he saw the video.
From Politico:
Trump saw the unauthorized video and became incensed, complaining to associates at the White House that she had spoken out of turn, according to three people familiar with the episode — two of them inside the administration and all granted anonymity to describe sensitive dynamics.
Her post came a few days after Israel hawks met with Trump at the White House to lobby him to support Israel’s attacks on Iran. In the eyes of Trump and some close to him, Gabbard was warning him not to greenlight Israel attacking Iran. Trump even expressed his disapproval to her personally, the three people said.
A senior administration official told Politico that the video made Trump “not super hot” on Gabbard, adding that the president “doesn’t like it when people are off message.”
Gabbard’s video came just days before an escalating conflict broke out between Israel and Iran. Trump has reportedly been weighing whether the U.S. should get involved in the conflict after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran was close to acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Politico’s report also came after Trump publicly rebuked Gabbard’s previous comments about Iran’s nuclear program on Tuesday. Trump was asked about Gabbard’s March congressional testimony where she explained that the Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.
Trump pushed back on Gabbard’s remarks while speaking on Air Force One, saying that he believes Iran was close to acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one,” Trump told reporters.
During the March 26 House Intelligence Committee hearing, Gabbard said that the intelligence community did not believe Iran was building the weapon.
“The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,” she said at the time.
Trump’s contradiction of Gabbard echoed his feuds with U.S. spy leaders during his first term, when he viewed them as part of a “deep state” that was undermining his agenda. Most notably, he sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018 when asked if Moscow had interfered in the 2016 election, saying Putin was “extremely strong and powerful in his denial.”
The latest break over Iran was striking because Trump has staffed his second administration with loyalists rather than establishment figures. Gabbard, a military veteran and former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, was narrowly confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate because of her scant experience with intelligence or managing sprawling organizations.
Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022 and endorsed Trump in last year’s election, testified Tuesday before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee in a closed session that had been previously scheduled about the budget.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stories by Lauren Sforza
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