The Daily Brief — May 22, 2026
Tulsi Gabbard to resign, GOP cancels vote to end war, DNC election report released
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Tulsi Gabbard Resigns as Intelligence Director
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is resigning, effective June 30.
Gabbard is stepping down to care for her husband, Abraham Williams, who was recently diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, administration officials said.
The director of national intelligence oversees the country’s 18 intelligence agencies and prepares the president’s daily intelligence briefing. Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and 2020 presidential candidate, had held the post since early 2025. According to some reports, Gabbard was nearly fired by Trump earlier this year after what he believed was her lukewarm support for the Iran war during a Senate hearing on worldwide threats in March.
She is the latest Cabinet-level official to leave the administration, following the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this year.
Judge Dismisses Abrego Garcia Smuggling Case
A federal judge in Tennessee dismissed the human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia today, finding the Trump administration brought the case to punish him for fighting his wrongful deportation to El Salvador last year.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who has lived and worked in Maryland for years, was deported in 2025 despite a 2019 court order saying he could not be sent back to El Salvador. After the Supreme Court ruled the administration had to bring him back, he returned and was immediately charged with human smuggling over a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. He pleaded not guilty.
“The evidence before this Court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power,” Judge Waverly Crenshaw wrote. He was unsparing in his criticism of the government’s conduct. “Instead of investigating the November 2022 traffic stop to identify who was responsible for the human smuggling, [US Deputy Attorney General Todd] Blanche started the investigation to implicate Abrego,” Crenshaw wrote. “He did so to justify the Executive Branch’s decision to remove him to El Salvador.”
GOP Cancels Iran War Vote for Second Day
House Republican leaders canceled a vote on a Democratic-sponsored proposal that would force President Donald Trump to end US military involvement in the war with Iran. It was the second cancellation in two days.
The proposal lets Congress direct the president to halt military action it has not authorized. GOP leaders pulled the vote because at least eight Republicans were absent, leaving leadership short of the numbers to defeat it.
The House will likely take up the measure in early June, after members return from a weeklong recess. The Senate advanced a similar resolution earlier this week, and a final Senate vote is also expected after the recess.
Election Deniers Among Those Seeking Federal Payout
At least three prominent Trump allies and a right-wing news outlet say they plan to seek payouts from the Justice Department’s new “anti-weaponization fund,” a $1.776 billion program created to compensate people who say they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration.
The fund was established this week as part of a deal in which Trump dropped a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns.
Among those seeking payment is Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who repeatedly promoted the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and who is currently running for governor of Minnesota.
Michael Caputo, a Health and Human Services spokesman during Trump’s first term, became the first person to file a claim, seeking $2.7 million.
Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman, said he expects to seek $2 to $5 million. Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and sentenced to 22 years in prison before Trump pardoned him in January 2025. One America News Network (OANN) also says it plans to seek compensation; the amount is unknown. OANN was not prosecuted by the Department of Justice, but was sued for defamation by voting-technology company Smartmatic over false 2020 election claims, a case the two sides later settled for an undisclosed sum.
Former FBI Director James Comey suggested he might qualify for compensation, telling CNN the Justice Department had targeted him for “personal, political, or ideological reasons.” It was unclear whether he was serious.
In a similar vein, former CNN anchor Jim Acosta appeared to mock the compensation program while suggesting he, too, might qualify for a payout. Acosta, a longtime Trump critic and frequent target of the president’s attacks, wrote in a Substack post addressed to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that he had been “on the receiving end of some first-term Trump government weaponization.” He said he was seeking $5 million.
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DNC Releases Report on 2024 Election Loss
The Democratic National Committee released its long-delayed report examining why the party lost the 2024 election, drawing criticism from Democrats over both its conclusions and what it left out.
The roughly 200-page report was written by Democratic strategist Paul Rivera and released by DNC Chair Ken Martin. It argues Democrats lost touch with working-class, rural, and male voters, especially in the Midwest and South; relied too heavily on urban and suburban turnout; failed to deliver a strong economic message; and did not attack Trump aggressively enough. It also urges the party to engage more with Latino voters and warns against leaning too heavily on identity-based messaging — appeals organized around voters’ race, gender, or sexual orientation.
The report omits Joe Biden’s age and late exit from the race, the rapid elevation of Kamala Harris as nominee, the effect of the Gaza war, and US policy toward Israel.
Martin distributed the report with a disclaimer on each page noting it reflects the author’s views, not the DNC’s, and said he did not endorse its findings but was releasing it for transparency.
Deportation Flights to DRC Paused Due to Ebola
The Trump administration has temporarily paused deportation flights to the Democratic Republic of the Congo because of the Ebola outbreak.
The suspension includes both regular deportation flights and flights with migrants from other countries who are being sent to the DRC because their home countries won’t accept them, called third-country removals. That practice has attracted judicial scrutiny because the administration has attempted to deport immigrants to third countries after several federal courts ruled that the government cannot send them back to their home countries if they might face persecution or torture. Last week, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration likely violated the law by deporting a Colombian woman to the DRC in April and ordered the government to bring her back.
The outbreak has also affected international travel. The CDC has barred entry for non–US citizens who recently traveled to affected areas in Africa. Days ago, a flight from Paris to Detroit was diverted to Canada after officials learned a passenger had recently traveled from Congo.
Gas Prices Hit Four-Year High for Memorial Day
The national average price of regular gasoline is $4.56 a gallon, the highest for the Friday before Memorial Day since 2022, according to AAA.
That is up more than 50% since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran began February 28 and $1.38 higher than a year ago.
Prices have climbed because of the war. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, the channel through which about 20% of the world’s oil supply passed before the conflict, and a US naval blockade has cut off shipments from Iran’s own ports.