Tulsi Gabbard’s glamorous right hand is out of the White House as whispers swirl of Donald Trump feuding with his top spies over Iran.
Sources familiar with Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a former CIA officer married into the Kennedy clan, say her resignation stems from her disagreement with the President’s decision to launch strikes on the country, according to the Washington Post.
She is the second of Gabbard’s top deputies to quit over the conflict in the Middle East. In March, Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, stepped down after claiming Israeli leaders had misled Trump about the imminent threat Iran posed to the US.
Backed by her father-in-law, RFK Jr, Kennedy tried but failed to become the deputy director of the CIA after Trump’s 2024 election due to pushback from Republican senators who worried she would impose disruptive changes at the agency.
Inside the administration, people familiar with her work said she focused on human espionage, new intelligence-gathering technologies and East Asia.
‘We are grateful to Amaryllis Fox Kennedy for her leadership and exceptional service,’ Gabbard told the Daily Mail. ‘Under her leadership, we successfully aligned the Intelligence Community agencies with the Administration’s and ODNI’s goals, driving a unified approach to our mission.’
Kennedy sent an email to colleagues earlier this month informing them she was leaving to return to the private sector. She made no mention of the war and praised Trump in the message.
Since the war began, Gabbard has faced persistent calls to resign over her opposition to US military action in Iran.
Another of Tulsi Gabbard’s top deputies has quit over the Iran conflict
Since the war began, Gabbard has faced persistent calls to resign over her opposition to US military action in Iran
Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a former CIA officer who married into the Kennedy clan, apparently quit over her disagreement with Donald Trump’s decision to launch strikes on Iran, sources say
The Daily Mail has contacted the White House for comment.
Kennedy served simultaneously as a deputy to Gabbard at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget, and a member of Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
Her roles managing intelligence and oversight raised concerns among some current and former US officials, according to the Washington Post.
Like Kennedy, Kent was one of Gabbard’s most trusted lieutenants before walking out.
His resignation letter torched Israel and its ‘powerful American lobby’ for dragging the US into the war.
Trump dismissed him as ‘very weak on security,’ but the back-to-back exits leave Gabbard’s inner circle visibly fraying.
The former spy married into the Kennedy clan in 2018, walking down the aisle with RFK’s eldest son, Bobby Kennedy III, at a beachside ceremony at the family’s Cape Cod compound.
The couple, who first met at Burning Man, have two children.
She married the eldest son of RFK Jr, Bobby Kennedy III, on a beach in Massachusetts in 2018
Backed by her father-in-law, RFK Jr, Kennedy tried but failed to become the deputy director of the CIA
Kennedy worked closely with Gabbard to craft a national intelligence strategy laying out the operational objectives for the entire US intelligence community.
She also helped push for the declassification of historical documents tied to the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, Senator Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
