Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has issued a bone-chilling warning that the world is “closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation" than ever before.
The former Hawaii congresswoman turned Trump appointee released a haunting three-minute video about the catastrophic vision of what could lie ahead in the future: a full-blown nuclear holocaust.
The 44-year-old began her video by talking about her visit to Hiroshima, Japan, the site of one of the deadliest nuclear attacks in history.
“This is the reality of what’s at stake, what we are facing now,” the 44-year-old declared. “Because as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers.”
The message was underscored by harrowing imagery, including a simulation of San Francisco being vaporized in seconds. “This isn't some made-up science fiction story,” she insisted. “This is the reality.”
And she made it brutally clear: today’s nuclear bombs dwarf the 15-kiloton weapon dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Modern warheads can clock in at over one megaton, enough, she said, to kill millions in minutes.
As Gabbard walked through Hiroshima’s haunting memorials, she described the city as still “scarred by the unimaginable horror” from the attack that killed more than 300,000 people.
She emphasized that while the initial blast would obliterate structures and communities in moments, the long-term “fallout” would be just as horrific - radioactive poison seeping into the air, water, and soil, “condemning survivors to agonizing deaths or lifelong suffering".
And it wouldn’t stop there, as plumes of ash and smoke would block sunlight, killing crops and plunging the planet into darkness. Acid rain would follow, scorching what little remained.
“Perhaps it’s because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won’t have access to,” Gabbard said.
She ended with a rallying cry: “It’s up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness... We must reject this path to nuclear war and work toward a world where no one has to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust.”
Gabbard’s dire warning lands just as the Trump administration struggles to revive the nuclear deal with Iran, though even the 78-year-old president sounds increasingly doubtful it will happen.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, per The New York Post. “I did think so, and I’m getting more and more - less confident about it… They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame, but I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago.”
Against that backdrop, the Director of National Intelligence's message couldn’t feel more urgent as the US is actively brokering ceasefire efforts between Russia and Ukraine, and also between Israel and Palestine, all while global tensions among nuclear powers continue to escalate.
Her warning joins a growing chorus of global figures raising alarm bells. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte didn’t sugarcoat things either, urging members to ramp up defense spending: “Wishful thinking will not keep us safe," per Sky News.
"We cannot dream away the danger. Hope is not a strategy,” he continued. “So NATO has to become a stronger, fairer, and more lethal alliance.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, for his part, offered his own chilling take. At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, he said that if nuclear conflict were to erupt, Europe is “more or less defenseless".
Gabbard’s views on nuclear policy have shifted over time. Back in 2019, she blasted Trump for tearing up the Iran nuclear agreement and pushing the US closer to the brink of nuclear war.
But during Trump’s 2024 campaign, she flipped, blaming the Biden administration for bringing the world to the edge.
“We are facing multiple wars on multiple fronts and regions around the world, and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before," she said, per Washington Examiner.
“This is one of the main reasons why I’m committed to doing all that I can to send President Trump back to the White House, where he can once again serve us as our commander in chief," she added.