It was a “bad year for the Deep State” in 2025, and a good one for the Director of National Intelligence’s (DNI) efforts to bolster department-wide transparency, counterterrorism, the effort to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and more, a DNI spokesperson told the Washington Reporter.

The Reporter broke multiple stories about the DNI’s work in 2025 — including Director Tulsi Gabbard’s declassification of the Obama administration’s role in surveilling Trump’s 2016 campaign and prompting the Russia collusion investigation, Gabbard’s vision for ODNI 2.0, the addition of counternarcotics to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)’s portfolio, and more. 

One of Gabbard’s first reforms was to dismantle a DEI apparatus that a spokesman said had overtaken many of the agency’s priorities. Reforms Gabbard took as part of ODNI 2.0 will save taxpayers almost $1 billion a year.

“In just eleven months under President Trump’s and DNI Gabbard’s leadership, we’ve shattered the status quo, begun to restore trust in the Intelligence Community, unveiled historic transformations with ODNI 2.0, deployed the U.S. counterterrorism enterprise against terrorist gangs and cartels, exposed bombshell evidence of the Russia Hoax, declassified half a million documents in the public interest, and much more,” a DNI spokesman told the Reporter. “Thanks to President Trump, DNI Gabbard, and their commitment to putting the American people first, we’re working around the clock to end weaponized intelligence and hold those who politicized it accountable.”

Gabbard’s confirmation hearing was one of the most contentious, and she faced bipartisan hurdles. She received support from family members of Americans who had been taken hostage by Islamic terrorists, which was first covered by the Reporter.

During Gabbard’s international trips, she conveyed to her counterparts that “[Trump] is taking decisive action to that end around conflicts that have existed for a very long time, and how he is using his position to send a strong message that peace and security and freedom and stability are mutual interests that the United States has with many, if not most, other countries in different parts of the world,” she told the Reporter during an interview in New Delhi. “I think a really clear quality characteristic that both he and Prime Minister Modi share is that they are both very practical leaders.”

Gabbard also visited Israel, and the U.S.-operated Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in southern Israel. “For the first time in a generation, there’s a genuine sense of hope and optimism, not just in Israel, but across the Middle East,” she said at the time. “That’s because of President Trump’s leadership and the groundwork he laid through his historic peace deal.” Gabbard called the CMCC “a living example of what can happen when nations unite for common interests with the potential impact of lasting peace that benefits generations to come.”

During Gabbard’s trip to Israel, she also visited an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) facility, received briefings on the West’s humanitarian aid efforts in the region, and toured the Kerem Shalom Crossing. 

Gabbard has also noted to the Reporter that her work has so far been hindered by her predecessor. The Trump administration extradited Abdul Rahman al-Logari, one of the masterminds of the Abbey Gate suicide attack that killed 13 American servicemembers during former President Joe Biden’s failed 2021 withdrawal from the country, a mission Gabbard said was difficult due to the lack of groundwork provided by the Biden administration.

“There was no groundwork done [by the Biden administration], because there was not a commitment to actually do the work,” Gabbard told the Reporter. “The travesty came amidst this failed withdrawal from Afghanistan. It didn’t surprise me that there was no groundwork done, because we had an administration, both from the top with President Biden, but also the leaders that he had in charge of this epic failure, that refused to take responsibility for it in and of itself. So it didn’t surprise me then that they also refused to actually do the work necessary to go after the terrorists who are responsible for that bombing.”

Gabbard’s DNI has also led the Trump administration’s mass declassification efforts, which have included the declassification of around half a million documents relating to high-profile events in American history, including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Those efforts required collaboration across multiple agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), CIA, FBI, and more.  

While Gabbard has pushed for increased federal transparency, she’s also had to combat numerous “unauthorized releases of classified information” from within her ranks, which she categorized as “illegal” to the Reporter.

“It’s a very dangerous thing, and we’ve seen this over President Trump’s first campaign, his first term in office, four years in between, and then even now,” she said. 

“People break the law because they’ve not been held accountable,” she added, “and the most dangerous threat to our republic is that we have unelected people who sit within our government who believe that they don’t answer to the American people and that they are more powerful than those who are duly elected by the American people. That’s the danger here, ultimately.”

Following several leaks, Gabbard immediately revoked the security clearances of those responsible; she additionally revoked clearances from former IC officials who were part of the campaign to discredit Hunter Biden’s laptop as having hallmarks of Russian disinformation.

Finally, Gabbard and Director of the NCTC Joe Kent have worked with intelligence partners in America and with American allies on counterterrorism efforts, including the capture of La Diabla, a notorious human trafficker, and the takedown of Sinaloa boss El Pato.