Gabbard says husband’s surgery was successful: ‘Now the recovery begins’

Tulsi Gabbard, who announced her resignation as director of national intelligence after her husband was diagnosed with bone cancer, said he underwent successful surgery and is recovering.

“My husband Abraham was diagnosed with a very rare sacral chordoma,” Gabbard wrote on the social platform X. “The surgery to remove bone and surrounding tissue lasted almost seven hours and was successful.”

“He had a rough night and is in a lot of pain but is finally home resting. Now recovery begins. We’re so grateful for the outpouring of prayers and kind messages from all of you. Our hearts are full,” she added.

Gabbard said she will step down at the end of the month, writing in a letter to President Trump that her husband’s recent diagnosis requires her to “step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle.”

The former lawmaker married her husband Abraham Williams in 2015. In her letter to the president, she wrote that he “has been my rock” in the 11 years since — during which time she represented Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in the House and sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. She left the Democratic Party in 2022.

“His strength and love have sustained me through every challenge,” she wrote last month. “I cannot in good conscience ask him to face this fight alone while I continue in this demanding and time-consuming position.”

Sacral chordoma is a malignant, slow-growing and locally aggressive tumor that arises from the notochord, according to a review of the disease published in the National Library of Medicine. Chordomas are not responsive to chemotherapy or radiation, with the first line of treatment typically involving wide surgical excision.

Upon Gabbard announcing her resignation, Trump said that her deputy, Aaron Lukas, would serve as the acting head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

On Tuesday, the president named Federal Housing Finance Agency head William Pulte to take on the acting role of intelligence director. Pulte, an entrepreneur and Trump donor, has gone after the president’s perceived foes — including Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — with allegations of mortgage fraud.

The appointment drew immediate pushback from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who questioned Pulte’s lack of intelligence experience and expressed concern that he will weaponize U.S. intelligence against critics of Trump.