Shawn Fleetwood writes for the Federalist about recent comments from a leading Trump administration intelligence official.
Ensuring citizens’ “privacy is essential to individual liberty,” Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard said while speaking at an international conference on Tuesday.
“It’s why America’s founders enshrined this God-given right in the Constitution nearly 250 years ago. They understood that a government with unchecked power to control what we say, control what we do, and to search and surveil its citizens is not a government of the free,” Gabbard said.
The remarks were part of a virtual speech the DNI gave at the 2025 Privacy Symposium Conference in Venice, Italy. According to its website, the event “aims at promoting international dialogue, cooperation, and knowledge sharing on data governance, regulatory compliance, and innovative technologies.”
In her remarks, Gabbard noted the oath she took upon taking her job to “upholding the principles of freedom that define us as a nation and that serve as the foundation for our democracy.” She further underscored America’s “commitment to protecting people from unwarranted search and surveillance by the government,” arguing that faithfulness to such an ideal “reflects a deep belief that a country that does not truly respect privacy is a country that does not respect its people and truly is not free.”
“Now, as Director of National Intelligence, it’s my duty and responsibility to support our president’s mission, to ensure the safety and security and freedom of the American people by providing him with the best, most relevant, accurate intelligence possible,” Gabbard said. “It is also my duty to ensure that American civil liberties are free from government overreach and abuse of power.”
The director of National Intelligence went on to detail how, “for far too long,” citizens have repeatedly been told by government officials that they “must sacrifice liberty sometimes in the name of more security,” and that oftentimes, “once we give up some of our freedoms to the government, it’s extremely difficult and therefore very, very rare that we ever see those freedoms restored.”
