January 3, 2026. Mar-a-Lago. The Director of National Intelligence wasn't in the room.
Trump sat surrounded by advisers watching Operation Absolute Resolve unfold on screens: the invasion of Caracas, Navy SEALs capturing Nicolás Maduro, U.S. military strikes across Venezuela. Marco Rubio was there. Pete Hegseth was there. John Ratcliffe was there. Stephen Miller was there.
Tulsi Gabbard, who commands 18 intelligence agencies, oversees $100 billion in annual budget authority, serves as principal intelligence advisor to the President, was posting from Hawaii.
White House aides started joking. "DNI stands for Do Not Invite."
Six months earlier, Gabbard had done exactly what Trump appointed her to do. She shut down the United States Agency for International Development. She defunded the National Endowment for Democracy. She dismantled the covert infrastructure that had destabilized governments from Ukraine to Libya to Syria for decades. She cut the Office of the Director of National Intelligence by 40 percent, saved $700 million, revoked security clearances from 37 intelligence officials who'd weaponized their positions.
This was real power. This was the end of covert regime change operations.
Trump thanked her by launching overt wars without telling her.
Tulsi Gabbard is a combat veteran. Twenty-two years of military service. Multiple deployments to Iraq, Kuwait, and Africa. She earned a Combat Medical Badge—awarded only to medical personnel under enemy fire. Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve. Eight years in Congress on the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, and Homeland Security Committees.
In January 2017, she took a trip to Syria that ended her career in the Democratic Party.
She met with Bashar al-Assad. She spoke with Syrian civilians. She came back and said something the establishment couldn't forgive: "I will not support a policy of allying with Al-Qaeda to overthrow a sovereign government."
Jake Sullivan, then advising Hillary Clinton and later Biden's National Security Advisor, had written it plainly in an email to Clinton: "Al-Qaeda is on our side in Syria."
Gabbard said it out loud. She named the policy. She called the Syrian opposition what they were: terrorists, including Al-Qaeda affiliates.
Hillary Clinton went on a podcast in October 2019 and called Gabbard, a sitting U.S. Congresswoman and Iraq War combat veteran, a "Russian asset."
"She's the favorite of the Russians."
Yet Bernie Sanders defended her: "Tulsi Gabbard has put her life on the line to defend this country."
Progressive feminists sided with Hillary.
On October 11, 2022, Gabbard left the Democratic Party.
"I can no longer remain in today's Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers."
Two years later, Trump offered her a deal.
The Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on January 30, 2025, revealed what both parties demand: loyalty to the establishment, not the Constitution.
Gabbard opened with a warning:
"You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country."
Mark Warner, Democrat, Vice Chairman:
"You have repeatedly excused our adversaries' worst actions and instead often blamed them on the United States. I don't find your change of heart credible."
Michael Bennet, Democrat, yelled at her. The usually soft-spoken senator from Colorado began yelling because Gabbard refused to call Edward Snowden a traitor.
Multiple senators, Democrats and Republicans, pressed her on this.
"Is Edward Snowden a traitor?"
Gabbard's answer, repeated throughout:
"He broke the law."
She would not call him a traitor. Snowden exposed illegal mass surveillance programs, programs the courts later ruled unconstitutional. But he also leaked classified information and fled to Russia.
Gabbard refused the binary. She refused to perform loyalty.
Mitch McConnell, the ultimate establishment Republican, voted no on her confirmation as Director of National Intelligence. The only Republican to do so.
The vote was 52-48. The same vote that confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS Secretary the day before.
Two people the establishment on both sides feared. Two people Trump used to get elected.
Tulsi Gabbard got real power as Director of National Intelligence. And she used it.
On January 24, 2025, twelve days after confirmation, Trump issued a stop-work order to USAID. By July 1, 2025, USAID was shut down entirely. Sixty-three years of operations eliminated. 83 percent of programs ended. All overseas staff positions cut.
On February 13, 2025, Trump suspended funding for the National Endowment for Democracy. By August 2025, Gabbard announced a 40 percent reduction in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence [ODNI] generating $700 million in savings. She dismantled the Foreign Malign Influence Center. She revoked security clearances from 37 intelligence officials, including those who signed the letter calling Hunter Biden's laptop "Russian disinformation."
This wasn't symbolic. This was the dismantling of the covert Forever War infrastructure.
USAID and NED served as CIA fronts for regime change operations. The founder of NED, Allen Weinstein, said it plainly in 1991:
"A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
For decades, billions of off-budget dollars flowed through USAID and NED to fund opposition groups, protest movements, and media outlets in countries the U.S. wanted to destabilize.
On February 6, 2014, Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State under President Obama, spoke with Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. The Russians intercepted the call and posted it online.
Nuland picked Ukraine's next government three weeks before the coup.
"I think Yats is the guy [Arseniy Yatsenyuk] who's got the economic experience. So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and you know... fuck the EU."
On February 21, 2014, Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's democratically elected president, was overthrown.
On February 27, 2014, Arseniy Yatsenyuk became Prime Minister. Exactly who Nuland picked.
Then Yatsenyuk's government invited Jeffrey Sachs to Kyiv.
Jeffrey Sachs is the most important developmental economist in the world. Principal contributor to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The economist the U.S. government sent to help Russia and the former Warsaw Pact nations convert from communism to free market economies. He advised Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Poland, Slovenia, Ukraine.
The U.S. government trusted Sachs with the most sensitive economic transitions of the post-Cold War era.
When Sachs arrived in Kyiv in March 2014, U.S. NGOs operating there told him directly:
"We paid for the violent overthrow of the democratically elected government of Ukraine."
They weren't confessing. They were bragging.
Sachs testified publicly on February 19, 2025, before the European Parliament:
"I was told how the US paid the money for all the people around the Maidan, the 'spontaneous' revolution of dignity. Ladies and gentlemen, how did all those Ukrainian media outlets suddenly appear? Where did all this organization come from? Where did all these buses come from? This is an organized effort. And it's not a secret, except perhaps to citizens of Europe and the United States."
This is firsthand testimony from the economist the U.S. government employed for decades. Not speculation. Not Russian propaganda. Confession from the operatives themselves.
Libya 2011. Syria 2011. Ukraine 2014. The pattern: fund the opposition, create instability, justify intervention.
Gabbard eliminated the mechanism.
Six months after USAID closed, Trump invaded Venezuela without telling her.
Operation Absolute Resolve. On January 3, 2026, Navy SEALs executed an incursion in Caracas, capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The mission included thirty-two military strikes and killed one hundred and fifteen people.
This was not a covert CIA operation. President Trump ordered an overt military invasion.
Gabbard had authority over intelligence agencies, covert operations, including off-budget funding through CIA and NSA. She had no authority over overt military operations. Trump bypassed her by switching from covert to overt regime change operations.
When Gabbard opposed Venezuela, Trump excluded her from all planning, inspiring White House aides to joke: "DNI means Do Not Invite."
Iran followed the same pattern. In both June 2025 and from February 2026 through today, President Trump ordered U.S. military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and a devastating direct bombing campaign lasting 40 days ending April 8, 2026. Iran has responded with equally lethal bombing of U.S. military facilities and assets throughout the Middle Eastern region, and the worst ballistic missile attack on Israeli territory since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Since the tenuous ceasefire reached in April 2026, President Trump has ordered the U.S. Navy to blockade Iranian maritime activities in response to Iran's shutting down of the Strait of Hormuz.
John Ratcliffe ran the Iran operation, not Gabbard. Trump publicly dismissed her intelligence assessments:
"I don't care what she said."
Bill O'Reilly, a Trump ally, said it plainly in March 2026:
"She lost all credibility with Donald Trump. I know she was not involved with the Iranian situation at all."
Tulsi Gabbard shut down the covert Forever War mechanism.
Trump responded by launching overt Forever Wars.
Same mission. Different method.
Gabbard thought dismantling the covert infrastructure would force transparency. If we're going to war, it must be overt, congressionally authorized, and publicly debated.
Trump just skipped the covert phase and bombed them directly.
For decades, progressive advocates demanded women in positions of power. On February 12, 2025, Tulsi Gabbard became Director of National Intelligence, responsible for 18 agencies, over $100 billion in budget authority, more operational power than any woman in American history. More than Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. More than Kamala Harris as Vice President.
Yet progressive media has been stoically silent while political operatives have attacked her. Hillary Clinton called her a "Russian asset." Feminist organizations ignored her. Kamala Harris got week-long celebrations for a ceremonial role. Gabbard got questioned about her loyalty while commanding the entire intelligence community.
The principle was never "empower women." It was about empowering women in service of the establishment.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. walked the same path. Democrats excluded him because he threatened pharmaceutical, industrial agriculture, and processed food industries. Kamala Harris wouldn't take his call. Trump offered him HHS Secretary. Kennedy got authority over vaccines and food additives. Trump blocked him on glyphosate with an executive order.
Gabbard threatened the Forever War machine. Democrats expelled her for refusing to ally with Al-Qaeda. Trump offered her DNI. She dismantled the covert infrastructure. Trump launched overt wars without her.
Kennedy got partial power in exchange for silence on what mattered most.
Gabbard got a title and zero power to stop overt wars.
The pattern runs across party and ideology. Challenge the wrong industries and the establishment closes every door. It doesn't matter if you're a combat veteran who earned decorations under fire. It doesn't matter if you spent forty years suing corporate polluters. It doesn't matter if your last name is Kennedy or you're the most powerful woman in U.S. history.
When they had nowhere left to go, Trump made the offer they couldn't refuse.
But Trump was never their friend.
Gabbard made the deal. She knew what it would cost. She believed dismantling the covert infrastructure would end Forever Wars.
She was wrong about Trump. But she was right about the establishment.
When the enemy of your enemy offers you a deal, remember they're not your friend.
They just need your credibility.
Victoria Nuland-Geoffrey Pyatt phone call: Reuters, The Guardian, BBC (February 2014) | Jeffrey Sachs European Parliament speech: jeffsachs.org (February 19, 2025) | USAID closure: NPR, The Guardian, New York Times, Forbes (2025-2026) | NED as CIA front: Covert Action Magazine, MintPress News, Tehran Times | Gabbard confirmation hearing: Senate Intelligence Committee transcript (January 30, 2025) | Venezuela/Iran operations: Military.com, LA Times, The Hill, NBC News | Bill O'Reilly comments: NewsNation (March 19, 2026) | Hillary Clinton "Russian asset" statement: CNN, NBC (October 18, 2019)