President Trump’s intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, recently issued a chilling warning regarding the threat of ‘nuclear annihilation.’ In a video shared on her personal X account, Gabbard depicted a scenario where San Francisco is the target of a devastating bombing.

The director of national intelligence presented a video that lasted several minutes, accompanied by a foreboding message concerning the looming danger of nuclear catastrophe.

The footage begins with Gabbard noting how she recently visited Hiroshima, site of the WWII nuclear blast.

‘It’s hard to find the words to express what I saw,’ she says.

The video depicted a grim scene where the city was completely destroyed, resulting in the deaths of more than 300,000 individuals. The casualties suffered included immediate fatalities as well as deaths caused by severe burns, injuries, radiation exposure, illnesses, and long-term cancer. The devastation described in the video also extended to Nagasaki, where homes, schools, and families were all tragically wiped out in an instant.

Her post reveals that she walked away from the experience with a ‘haunting sadness’ that ‘will stay with me forever.’

As she spoke, the video cut to footage of blast victims in 1945 and the flattened skylines of the bombed-out city remains. 

‘Yet this one bomb that caused so much destruction in Hiroshima was tiny compared to today’s nuclear bombs,’ she continued as renderings showed the colossal scale of modern day weapons. 

Gabbard then delivers a menacing verdict: ‘We are closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before.’ 

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard published a terrifying video on Tuesday warning that the world is on the brink of ‘nuclear annihilation’

The radioactive plume from the bomb dropped on Nagasaki City, as seen from 9.6 km away, in Koyagi-jima, Japan, August 9, 1945. The US B-29 superfortress Bockscar dropped the atomic bomb nicknamed ‘Fat Man,’ which detonated over the northern part of Nagasaki City just after 11am local time

In the video Gabbard can be seen visiting Hiroshima, a city nuked by the U.S. in WWII. She says in the production that the trip has left her with a ‘haunting sadness’

Scenes in the post depicted a simulation of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge shattering due to a nuclear explosion. 

Other seemingly AI-generated scenes showed the greenish dusk that could be caused from nuclear fallout as clouds choke out sunlight from reaching the ground. 

Though she did not highlight specific foreign adversaries the DNI did condemn unnamed ‘political elite warmongers’ who she accused of stirring fear. 

‘Acknowledging the past is critical to inform the future,’ ODNI Deputy Chief of Staff Alexa Henning told the Daily Mail in a statement about the video. 

‘President Trump has repeatedly stated in the past that he recognizes the immeasurable suffering, and annihilation can be caused by nuclear war, which is why he has been unequivocal that we all need to do everything possible to work towards peace.’ 

A recent ODNI threat assessment published in March sheds light on which countries have the capabilities Gabbard warns of.

‘China remains intent on modernizing, diversifying, and expanding its nuclear posture. China’s nuclear weapons and advanced delivery systems pose a direct threat to the Homeland and are capable of delivering catastrophic damage to the United States and threatening U.S. military forces here and abroad,’ the annual threat assessment states. 

‘Russia has the largest and most diverse nuclear weapons stockpile that, along with its deployed ground, air and sea-based delivery systems, could inflict catastrophic damage to the Homeland,’ it continues. 

The intelligence report also reveals that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ‘remains committed to increasing the number of North Korea’s nuclear warheads and improving its missile capabilities to threaten the Homeland and U.S. forces, citizens, and allies.’

Russian President Vladimir Putin was not mentioned by Gabbard, though Russia is listed as a threatening nuclear adversary in the March 2025 ODNI global threat assessment 

Russia test launches a nuclear-capable Sarmat missile on April 20, 2022

Footage aired by Chinese state media appears to show powerful weapons in underground bases 

Iran was mentioned in the report, though the intelligence community’s assessment is that they are not actively working to restart their nuclear weapons program. 

Trump has also been trying to secure a nuclear deal with Tehran, though negotiations are ongoing.  

Estimates suggest there are over 12,000 nuclear weapons across the globe currently, enough to kill billions of people worldwide. 

Tensions over nuclear weapon use against adversaries have increased since the war in Ukraine broke out. 

In November 2024, for example, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially lowered the country’s threshold for nuclear launches.

‘As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear intentions between nuclear powers,’ Gabbard says.

‘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.’

‘So 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.’