DNI Gabbard Remarks at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest

DNI Gabbard Remarks at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest

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On December 20, 2025, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard addressed Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona. The transcript of her remarks is below.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard

Transcript of Remarks

TPUSA AmericaFest

Phoenix, Arizona

December 20, 2025

Merry Christmas. I couldn't hear you in the back. Merry Christmas. You know, I'm a little bit emotional walking out here because this is the first time we are gathered here for AmFest without Charlie Kirk, but I feel in all of your voices and your presence here his love, and that's a beautiful thing. You know, at all the different TPUSA events that I have been through and to over the years, you know, Charlie was often the one who would greet me at the door. We would go and kind of huddle in a corner backstage and start talking about, "Oh, hey, what's going on? What are you working on? What are you working on, and how do we tackle the biggest challenges that we face in this country," with Charlie always incredibly focused and full of energy and not just looking around, okay, what's the next thing? But here's the 5, 10, 15, and 20 year plan that we really have to keep at the forefront of all that we're doing.

And so I didn't get to have that conversation with Charlie here. I had a conversation with Erika backstage, and I got to tell you, I continue to be in awe of this woman. I cannot imagine what she's been through, what she is going through. I'm in awe of and grateful for her kindness and her strength and how she has opened up her heart during the toughest of times to the world, and how she continues to exhibit the kind of courage and strength that you and I know can only come from God.

We hear a lot of talk about unity. It's a word that is frequently used. We must stand united. We must come together and unify. But too often, we don't actually think about what that means, to say we have to unite just for the sake of unity. What does it mean?

We can unite around the wrong things. We can unite around a negative cause that results in a negative impact. And so when we talk about standing united as Americans, we have to understand what that really means. What is it that binds us together? What are the fundamental principles that we must stand together on, whether we are Democrats or Republicans or people of different religions, people of different backgrounds or different views on certain policies. Fundamentally, the thing that we must unite on is our God given freedoms that are enshrined in our Constitution and that every one of us as Americans must remain committed and dedicated to defending. That is our foundation.

When we talk about America, we can look at borders, we can look at land, we can look at territory. But when we truly look at what does it mean to be an American, and the responsibility that every single one of us as Americans carries with us, it is centered on our foundational principles, on that vision that our founders had for us, knowing way back then how challenging it would be and how there would be frequent and consistent attacks on our freedom, and it would be up to us to defend them, and that's exactly where we are today.

Charlie understood these threats. He saw them and focused completely on this defense of freedom, not just in words, but in action. He lived that truth that so many of us who either wore the uniform or wear the uniform live by. I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. That's real. Charlie lived and died by that principle, that no matter how offensive or horrible or disgusting someone's speech is, no matter how much we disagree with it, it's up to us to stand up and protect and defend their right to say it, and to stand as Charlie did and defeat that weak or dark speech, that ideology, with a superior ideology that's focused on freedom.

You know, thinking about the threats to our freedom in these gatherings across the country that TPUSA hosts, we often talk about the attacks on freedom that came from the Biden administration, how they sought to censor us in different ways, how they sought to spread disinformation, to try to limit or control or curate what we saw and what we heard, how they lifted up certain voices and hushed others, reaching into their propaganda arms and compelling social media companies to do their dirty work for them.

But there is a threat to our freedom that is not often talked about enough, and it is the greatest near and long term threat to both our freedom and our security, and that is the threat of Islamist ideology. It is propagated by people who not only do not believe in freedom, their fundamental ideology is antithetical to the foundation that we find in our Constitution and Bill of Rights, which is that our Creator endowed upon us inalienable rights, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Charlie focused on this quite a bit. He talked about it in ways that very few others did, because he understood this direct threat to freedom.

When we look back to the attack on 9/11 that happened 24 years ago now, it changed so many of our lives, where 1000s of Americans were killed by Islamist jihadis who attacked us on that day. We were confronted with the reality of the length that they will go to try to attack the foundations of who we are as a country. It was a day that changed my life, probably like some of you in the room. It's what motivated me to enlist in the army, to go out and to fight and to defend our freedom and defeat those who are attacking us.

When we talk about this Islamist ideology, yes, it is the ideology that fuels terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS and Al-Shabaab and Hamas and Boko Haram and others, and they must be defeated militarily. As they continue to actively plot and try to attack us, they are a threat to our security and our safety. But this Islamist ideology is a direct threat to our freedom because at its core it is a political ideology that seeks to create a global caliphate that governs us here in America, threatening Western civilization, governance by Sharia law, governance by what they are calling their Islamic principles. And if you fail to comply, if you fail to adhere to this ideology, if you dare to exercise your God given right to free speech, censorship is not what we face. They will use violence or any means they deem as necessary to silence us.

If we don't take action to identify this threat, to define it, to call it out for what it is, and take action to defeat it, then we will find ourselves in a place where many European countries and countries like Australia have found themselves, countries where you can get arrested for praying silently on the street corner, as has happened in the UK, countries where you can be arrested for putting up a social media post that someone finds offensive somewhere. The threats from this Islamist ideology come in many forms.

As we approach Christmas, right now in Germany they are canceling Christmas markets because of this threat. In places like Dearborn, Michigan, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, Islamist clerics are openly pushing this Islamist ideology, trying to recruit and radicalize young people.

Earlier this year, there was a conference that was held representing organizations like the Council on American Islamic Relations, also known as CARE, which issued a call to action to use American legal and political systems to implement Sharia law. This is already underway in places. This is already underway in places like Houston. This is not something that may possibly happen. It is already happening here within our borders. Patterson, New Jersey, is proud to call themselves the first Muslim city. They are working to implement in their own governments these Islamic principles that are forced on people through the use of laws or violence.

The bottom line is this. When we talk about the threat of Islamism, this political ideology, there is no such thing as individual freedom or liberty. As Charlie said over and over again, it is fundamentally incompatible with our nation's foundation of freedom. And at its core, when we understand that our freedom comes from God and no one else, we understand the seriousness of this Islamist ideology threat, because it means they deny that God is the one who has bestowed this right to freedom in every one of us. So what do we do?

We, as Americans, have to stand proudly for freedom and understand that a free society cannot survive if it refuses to defend itself. You don't preserve freedom of speech by canceling it. We preserve free speech by exercising it, by using more of it, encouraging more speech. We protect our Constitution by ensuring loyalty to the Constitution. We protect our democratic republic by ensuring that we, the people, elect leaders who not only believe in American values, but actually live them, leaders who are committed to ensuring that we have a government of, by, and for the people, and leaders who most importantly put freedom and the interest and well being of the American people first in every single decision that they make.

Now one of the things that Charlie and I talked most often about was peace. This was the topic of the last in-person conversation that I had with Charlie. The topic of peace. He was a consistent and powerful advocate for peace because he understood that in order for us to be truly free and prosperous, we must be at peace. He understood the importance of President Eisenhower's farewell address when he warned that, "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or our democratic process."

That warning rings as true today as it did back then, when he said it, as a retired general who led during wartime and as a President and Commander in Chief of the United States. He understood then, as we do now, that too often we, the American people, are told we must choose between liberty or security, and which side often wins out in that proposition. Liberty loses, and the warmongers claim that they are doing what they are doing for the sake of our security. It's a lie. Eisenhower issued this warning because he understood the power of the influence of the military industrial complex and how those who seek to keep us in a persistent state of war deny the heavy costs that it takes in human lives, in taxpayer dollars, and in the erosion of our liberties, wars that have nothing to do with ensuring our security or our liberty.

Now, this is something that we're dealing with right now in real time. As you know, President Trump has been persistently and relentlessly pursuing a peace deal to finally end the war between Russia and Ukraine. He talks frequently about the need to end the killing and the bloodshed, and his teams are negotiating now as we gather here. But what I've seen over these months is that every time they make progress and they move closer and closer to that hope for peace, the warmongers in the Deep State step up and try to do everything they can to stop them. Predictably, they use the same old tactics that they've always used. The Deep State within the intelligence community weaponizes intelligence to try to undermine progress. They leak it to their friends in the mainstream propaganda media to try to spread this and push a false narrative. They foment fear and hysteria as a way to justify the continuing of the war and their efforts to undermine President Trump's efforts towards peace, and do so specifically in this case in order to try to pull the US military into a direct conflict with Russia, which is ultimately what the EU and NATO want. We cannot allow this to happen. We have to see clearly what's happening before our very eyes and stand united in this cause of peace.

I've served in the army now for almost 22 years. I'm grateful to serve. Thank you. I've deployed twice to the Middle East and once to East Africa as part of a Joint Special Operations Task Force to go after Al Qaeda in Somalia. But during my first deployment to Iraq in 2005, I served in a medical unit in a base about 40 miles north of Baghdad. And shortly after arriving there, I was walking around our camp trying to familiarize myself with the place when I was stopped in my tracks by a sign that someone had put up at the gate where most of our security patrols went in and out of every single day. This is inside the camp. Just before they left every day, they saw in big block letters the words, 'Is today the day?'

Is today the day? This ever present reminder that any day could be our last. This was true in the height of the war in Iraq, in the middle of a war zone. For some of my friends, for too many of my friends, their time came. They made that ultimate sacrifice, and it was hard, hard to lose those who were a part of our military family, those who I knew were willing to lay their lives down. One of my friends was named Staff Sergeant Tiai. He was just a few days away from being able to go home to American Samoa and to see his wife and his kids. They were making plans for what they would do during his two weeks of R&R, and he was killed when a roadside bomb exploded underneath his vehicle as they were approaching their return to base. I really struggled with his death. We weren't very close, but he was part of our family. And I prayed a lot. I asked God for clarity and for strength and for understanding and peace, and taking shelter in God's love and having faith in Him was where I found that peace.

Is today the day? Is today the day is a reminder that every one of us has the opportunity to reflect on as we pray and think about how we can make the most of every single day that we are blessed with life and breath in these bodies. We know Charlie did that. I remember being at a rally with him towards the end of President Trump's campaign. He was running the whole event, and as the speakers were going through, he was sitting there just backstage with his laptop, working on to the next thing, on to the next thing, on to the next thing, working tirelessly. The reality of this reflection is today the day is just as important for us here, as we gather and as we leave here and go about our daily lives, as it was for those of us serving in a war zone. None of us knows how much time we have, but the thing that we can choose to do is to dedicate our every day to love and serve God with all that we have and in all that we do. This is the secret to living a truly successful life and being truly happy in that life.

So as we approach Christmas now, we have the opportunity to celebrate Jesus Christ and what He told all of us to do. And He said it best in response to the question, what is your greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your entire being, and the second is like unto it. Love your neighbor as yourself. If we follow these commandments and keep them at the forefront of the choices that we make every day, how we treat each other, how we speak to others, whether they are friends or those who are coming at us and hurling insults at us, doesn't mean we roll over. We allow them to go unanswered. We understand the responsibility and the opportunity that we have is to respond with love, which is the most powerful force that exists, and that love is inspired by God's unconditional love for every single one of us.

Is today the day?

Yes, today is the day when we choose to stand together, united with hope in our hearts that comes from the light of God's love shining through our lives and in our work. I have hope today, inspired by God's love, that we will share that love with others, that we will treat each other with respect, with aloha, and that we will stand strong and unshakable in our resolve to defend our God given rights and freedoms.

Merry Christmas. Thank you so much. May God bless you all. May God bless America. Thank you so much. Thank you.

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