Tulsi Gabbard rescheduled her appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, as President Trump weighs his response to the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Trump's tone towards Iran has grown more ominous, putting him at odds with non-interventionists in the "America First" movement who are urging him not to get involved in Israel's war.
Gabbard has been a prominent critic of "forever wars" in the Middle East, although she insists that she and Trump are on the same page concerning Iran.
The delay in her Senate testimony was actually requested by senators who couldn't attend the hearing - but White House officials told the Washington Examiner that Gabbard, who heads the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is preoccupied with White House meetings.
A rift in Trump's MAGA movement had appeared to reach the White House this week when Trump was asked about Gabbard's past testimony to Congress that Iran is not developing a bomb. Trump has long maintained that Iran cannot get its hands on nuclear weapons.
“I don’t care what she said,” Trump replied. “I think they were very close to having a weapon.”
The White House has downplayed rumors of a divide, noting that Gabbard went on to tell Congress that Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles are at an unprecedented level. Officials have also said that Gabbard has been at the White House every day, and not the ODNI office in Virginia.
“She said they’re not building [a nuclear weapon], but then she goes on to say they’re at unprecedented levels of enriched uranium,” a White House aide told the Washington Examiner.
“So I feel bad for her, but she has been in the Situation Room every single meeting in the past week.”
It has also been reported that Gabbard was not invited to a huddle at Camp David on Sunday, and she is said to have angered Trump by releasing an ominous video that warned of "nuclear annihilation."
"I don't think he dislikes her as a person... But certainly the video made him not super hot on her... and he doesn't like when people are off-message," a senior administration official told Politico.
Trump faces a pivotal choice as he considers whether to enter Israel's war. He has not ruled out further diplomacy, but he isn't taking force off the table, either.
"You don’t seriously think I’m going to answer that question,” Trump responded when asked Wednesday about his plans.
“You don’t know that I’m going to even do it. You don’t know. I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this — that Iran’s got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate.”
