Trump intelligence director briefs Senate committee on security threats

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday about what the Trump administration characterized as the largest domestic and international threats facing America. She highlighted transnational gangs, cartels, and Islamic terrorists as three of the biggest threats facing the nation.

She emphasized the need to secure the U.S. border against violent drug trafficking groups like the Sinaloa Cartel, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the National Liberation Army, and MS-13. Colombia’s criminal groups are the largest cocaine producers in the world and are expanding trafficking ties with neighboring gangs in Brazil and Ecuador, Gabbard said.

She also identified Islamic terror actors across various Muslim Brotherhood chapters as serious security threats. Islamic groups shifted focus away from complex, large-scale attacks to information operations and spreading propaganda, she said. While the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda are no longer at their peak strengths, the spread of Islamist ideology is still a fundamental threat to freedom and Western principles, Gabbard said. She used the recent shooting at a Michigan synagogue as an example, noting the shooter’s familial ties to a Hezbollah leader. Many Islamic groups out of Yemen, South Asia, and Syria are building ranks and working to solicit funding, she added.

Gabbard also discussed various security threats posed by China, Russia, and North Korea. Intelligence showed China and Russia were working to develop advanced missile systems meant to be capable of penetrating or bypassing U.S. missile defense systems, and North Korean missiles can already reach U.S. soil, she said.

Non-state ransomware groups, as well as ransomware groups from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, also regularly target government and private networks to collect intelligence, Gabbard added. North Korea has worked to improve ties with China, which will pose an ongoing threat, along with Russia and China attempting to increase their presence in the Arctic.

Did she share insight on Iran? The Iranian regime appeared to be intact, but very degraded from recent strikes targeting its military and leadership, she said. If a hostile Iranian regime survives, it’s expected to start a yearslong process of rebuilding Iran’s military and recovering its severely damaged nuclear infrastructure from Operation Midnight Hammer, Gabbard said.

Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., specifically pressed Gabbard several times on why foreign threats to election security were not included in the 2026 threat report as in previous years. Gabbard responded by characterizing the report as a list of only the nation’s most pressing threats, not all threats.

Various lawmakers also pressed Gabbard on why intelligence officials did not anticipate Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Middle Eastern trade waterway, in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli strikes. Gabbard responded to the question several times by stating that intelligence officials briefed President Donald Trump before Operation Epic Fury and continued to give him ongoing intelligence updates. She also declined to answer more detailed questions regarding the president’s intelligence briefings.

Dig deeper: Read my report on last year’s international threat analysis hearing.