United States Politics: ∆τ_i*ε*φ*m_i<0 where ε=4 and φ=0.25

[benji]

filler's girl is in trouble:

As President Donald Trump privately mulled joining Israel’s campaign against Iran this month, one member of his Cabinet sent what he viewed as an audacious attempt to steer him in the opposite direction.

At 5:30 a.m. on June 10, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard tweeted a cryptic, three-minute video warning that “political elite and warmongers” are “carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers” — and that the world is “on the brink of nuclear annihilation.”

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.

Those tensions came to the forefront early Tuesday when a reporter aboard Air Force One asked Trump about Gabbard’s declaration before Congress in March that Iran was not seeking to build a nuclear weapon. Trump appeared to dismiss her assessment.

“I don’t care what she said,” Trump replied. “I think they were very close to having a weapon.”

It’s a remarkable change in tone from the way the president once talked about the former Democratic representative from Hawaii-turned-Trump supporter. Last fall, Trump touted Gabbard’s backing on the campaign trail. He added her — as well as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — to his Cabinet in part to highlight the ideological diversityof the MAGA coalition.

But in recent months, Trump has increasingly mused about nixing Gabbard’s office completely, an idea he floated when he gave her the job. In the White House there have been discussions about folding its mandate into the CIA or another agency, according to one of the people familiar with his response to the video and two others familiar with the matter — though it’s unclear what that would mean for Gabbard. The Director of National Intelligence serves as the president’s principal intelligence adviser and oversees the sprawling U.S. spy community.

And Trump has “just been kind of down on her in general,” said one of the people familiar with Gabbard’s interactions with the White House, adding that Trump thinks she “doesn’t add anything to any conversation.”

Gabbard insisted to reporters Tuesday that she and the president are “on the same page” on Iran, and a person close to Gabbard denied any tensions between her and the president. As recently as Tuesday, the two were meeting with other top officials in the Situation Room at the White House, and the administration even changed the time of the briefing to accommodate her schedule to ensure she could attend, the person said.

The Gabbard ally added that she is fully on board with what Trump is trying to do with Iran, and said she has never let her personal views color the advice she provides to the president — nor has she tried to sway Trump to her own point of view.

Asked for comment, White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said the president “has full confidence in his entire exceptional national security team” and insisted that “efforts by the legacy media to sow internal division are a distraction that will not work.”

Vice President JD Vance’s team also reached out unprompted Tuesday night to defend Gabbard in a statement, arguing that she is “an essential member” of the team.

“Tulsi Gabbard is a veteran, a patriot, a loyal supporter of President Trump, and a critical part of the coalition he built in 2024,” he said in a statement.

Some of Gabbard’s detractors are now holding up Trump’s words to argue that she should get the axe.

“She shouldn’t be in that job,” Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, who had his own falling out with Trump, said Tuesday.

Video of Trump’s comments about Gabbard on Air Force One have also stirred speculation on Capitol Hill that he has lost trust in her, said one senior congressional aide. Lawmakers of both parties were sharing the video widely among themselves on Tuesday morning, said the aide, who was granted anonymity to share details of private conversations.

“This is not just the hawkish camp,” the person said. “This is every single member sending it around.”