Intelligence official Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a Gabbard ally, leaves two jobs

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Intelligence official Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a Gabbard ally, leaves two jobs

The daughter-in-law of RFK Jr. held top posts at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of Management and Budget.

May 19, 2026 at 6:15 p.m. EDT


Amaryllis Fox Kennedy has said she hopes to keep her position on a presidential intelligence advisory board. (Office of the Director of National Intelligence)

By Warren P. Strobel, David Kenner and Ellen Nakashima

Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a top Trump administration intelligence official and ally of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, is stepping down this week from two key administration posts.

The departure of Kennedy, a daughter-in-law of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is the latest in the senior echelons of national security agencies. Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in March, breaking with President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.

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[Celerity]

1. Archive link:

https://archive.ph/hUp80

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Gabbard’s office coordinates the 18 U.S. spy agencies but has few operational powers. One of Kennedy’s projects has been to work with Gabbard on a national intelligence strategy, an unclassified document issued every few years by the ODNI that lays out the collection, analysis and operational objectives for the U.S. intelligence community.

Kennedy, the people familiar said, has also helped lead the push to declassify historical documents about the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy — her father-in-law’s uncle and father — and Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy was present at a surprise visit last year by ODNI personnel to a CIA facility, where a team took control of classified documents about the assassinations and transferred them to the National Archives, according to a Reuters report.

Like Gabbard, Kennedy before taking office voiced strong views against U.S. military interventions overseas, including American support for Kyiv’s efforts to repel Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Shortly before the 2024 presidential election, in an interview with host Tucker Carlson, she voiced opposition to a war with Iran like the one Trump began in February. Another person familiar with her work said Kennedy is viewed within the administration as someone who was once a frequent outside critic of U.S. foreign policy but has struggled to be effective in the competitive and often backbiting environment of the Trump administration.

Among U.S. spy agencies, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and his team appear to have the most influence with Trump and his White House. Gabbard and her office have not been central players in the major national security decisions of Trump’s second term, including military strikes on Iran in June 2025 and in February, and the January raid that seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

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