‘DNI = Do Not Invite’: Tulsi Gabbard was excluded from Venezuela operation planning – here’s why

Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, was reportedly excluded from key planning meetings for the operation to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro because of her past opposition to US military action in the country. Her previous stance cast doubt on her willingness to support the operation, reports Bloomberg. The exclusion became so well-known among White House staff that some aides joked the acronym of her title, DNI, stood for “Do Not Invite.” A White House official denied the joke ever occurred.As a Democratic congresswoman in 2019, Gabbard argued the US should “stay out” of Venezuela, and last month she criticised “warmongers” pushing the country into conflict with the Latin American country. Her views on regime change were opposite to that of President Donald Trump’s harsh foreign policy approach.Vice president JD Vance dismissed claims that he or Gabbard were left out of planning as “false.” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung added that Trump “has full confidence in DNI Gabbard and she’s doing a fantastic job.” Vance said the operation was tightly controlled at the senior Cabinet level to maintain secrecy.A senior intelligence official said that Gabbard still provided analytical intelligence for the mission, even if she was not directly involved in operational planning. “President Trump promised the American people he would secure our borders, confront narcoterrorism, dangerous drug cartels, and drug traffickers,” Gabbard wrote in a social media post. The message marked her first public comment since other top officials celebrated the operation.Photos released by the White House showed Trump with key aides including secretary of state Marco Rubio, defence secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, in a war room during the operation. Gabbard was not among them. Retired US Air Force intelligence colonel Cedric Leighton said it was unusual for DNI not to be involved in any of these operations, especially something like Venezuela.Gabbard has been occasionally sidelined, but she continues to brief the president and attend Oval Office meetings. The senior intelligence official claimed it was unfair to focus on her past views, as other senior officials, like Vance, also had policy disagreements with Trump in the past.Gabbard is a veteran of the Iraq War and has long opposed US involvement in regime-change wars. She said in 2019 that “we don’t want other countries to choose our leaders — so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.” In a recent speech, she criticised decades of US foreign policy as trapped in “a counterproductive and endless cycle of regime change or nation-building.”In a social media post in 2019, she said, “The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders–so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.”