Following multiple reports that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is falling out of favor with President Donald Trump over her views on Iran, a new report revealed that not only has Gabbard been iced out of top-level discussions on Iran, but so too has Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

According to The Washington Post — in a piece authored by Warren P. Strobel, Alex Horton and Abigail Hauslohner — Hegseth and Gabbard, despite occupying crucial positions, have been cut out at this critical juncture.

“Neither Gabbard nor Hegseth are playing starring roles as members of Trump’s inner circle of advisers, according to current and former U.S. officials and people close to the White House,” the piece states.

The report identifies Vice President JD Vance, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe as the four “tier one” advisors for Trump, all of whom are weighing in on a possible U.S. strike against Iran.

And on the military operations specifically, Hegseth has been “sidestepped” in favor of Caine and Gen. Erik Kurilla — commander of U.S. Central Command, which has operational authority for the Middle East.

“Nobody is talking to Hegseth,” an unnamed official told the Post. “There is no interface operationally between Hegseth and the White House at all.”

Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell dismissed the Post’s report as “completely false,” and said

“The Secretary is speaking with the President multiple times a day each day and has been with the President in the Situation Room this week.”

Similarly, Gabbard’s press secretary, Olivia Coleman, told the Post that the DNI “remains focused on her mission: providing accurate and actionable intelligence to the President, cleaning up the Deep State, and keeping the American people safe, secure, and free.”

A CNN report by Katie Bo Lillis and Kristin Holmes confirms the Post reporting that Gabbard is on the outs. They traced Trump’s break with Gabbard back to a June 10 video in which she called out “political elite warmongers” for “carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers.”

“Trump viewed the video as a thinly veiled criticism of his consideration to allow Israel to strike Iran, and many inside the White House agreed Gabbard was speaking out of turn,” Bo Lillis and Holmes wrote, citing an unnamed source.

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Joe DePaolo is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: [email protected] Follow him on Twitter: @joe_depaolo

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