Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to become President-elect Trump’s national intelligence director opens a new chapter in a whirlwind national political career that largely launched alongside the progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
After a decorated military career and four terms representing Hawaii in the House, Gabbard sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, running on a progressive platform and railing against U.S. involvement in foreign wars. Two years later, she announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, and then in August of this year endorsed Trump for president.
Gabbard praised Trump at the time for “having the courage to meet with adversaries, dictators, allies and partners alike in the pursuit of peace, seeing war as a last resort,” and condemned the Biden administration for the U.S. “facing multiple wars on multiple fronts in regions around the world and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before.”
In announcing his nomination, Trump on Wednesday wrote in a statement, “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength.”
Leading the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Gabbard will gain access to information from all 18 intelligence agencies and help advise the president on national security matters.
She is still an Army reservist, with a rank of lieutenant colonel, according to her LinkedIn page. While in the Hawaii National Guard, she served on a medical unit in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, an experience that she often points as guiding her anti-intervention stance.
Gabbard has been highly critical of the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine, and has been accused of parroting Russian propaganda about the war. But she was also critical of Trump while still a Democratic House member, calling America’s assassination of Iran’s top general, Qasem Soleimani, an “illegal and unconstitutional act of war” on CNN.
If confirmed by the Senate, Gabbard would soon be tasked with helping carry out Trump’s orders and agenda. Here’s what to know about her unorthodox political career.
Political transformation
Gabbard was first elected to the House in 2012, and four years later became the highest-profile House member backing Sanders in his presidential run against Hillary Clinton, breaking with the party’s policy of public neutrality in the race.
She was also vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) at the time and resigned that post in order to back Sanders.
“There is a clear contrast between our two candidates with regard to my strong belief that we must end the interventionist, regime change policies that have cost us so much. This is not just another ‘issue,’” she wrote of her Sanders endorsement and exit from the DNC.
Gabbard ultimately said she would vote for Clinton over Trump in the general election.
In 2019, Sanders defended Gabbard after Clinton suggested on a podcast that Russia was “grooming” Gabbard as a favorable third-party candidate.
“Tulsi Gabbard has put her life on the line to defend this country. People can disagree on issues, but it is outrageous for anyone to suggest that Tulsi is a foreign asset,” he said at the time.
Explaining her departure from the Democratic Party over the past two years, Gabbard cited foreign wars but also accused Democrats of stoking “anti-white racism” and “cowardly wokeness.”
“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms,” she said in a video statement in October 2022.
Gabbard, along with Robert Kennedy Jr., were the most visible former Democrats campaigning alongside Trump in the final months of the campaign.
She hosted Trump for a town hall in La Crosse, Wisc., in August and then was among the speakers at his Madison Square Garden rally during the campaign’s homestretch.
Russia stance
Gabbard has a history of elevating false claims and Russian narratives that have alarmed figures on both sides of the aisle, which are likely to be highlighted during her confirmation process.
In 2022, she walked back an earlier video expressed alarm over “U.S.-funded biolabs” in Ukraine she feared could spread “deadly pathogens,” later saying she was “not convinced” there were biological weapons being developed in the country.
The State Department at the time noted that the Kremlin was pushing “outright lies that the United States and Ukraine are conducting chemical and biological weapons activities in Ukraine.”
That prompted a dust up with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who accused her of “parroting Russian propaganda” and that her “treasonous lies may well cost lives.”
In 2022, she also faulted the Biden administration for failing to address Russian concerns as it invaded Ukraine.
“This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO, which would mean US/NATO forces right on Russia’s border,” she wrote on X at the time.
In a 2019 interview, Clinton underscored Russian media support surrounding Gabbard and called her a “favorite of the Russians.”
Syria visit
Gabbard also prompted backlash when news broke of a 2017 trip to visit Syrian Bashar al-Assad, who was accused of using chemical weapons on his own citizens during the country’s civil war.
Gabbard framed the meeting with the Russian ally as an effort to expedite bringing peace to the region.
“I think we should be ready to meet with anyone if there’s a chance it can help bring about an end to this war, which is causing the Syrian people so much suffering,” she said at the time.
The meeting triggered outrage among her fellow members of Congress.
“An elected official, a representative of the United States, went on a secret trip to meet with the brutal dictator who had murdered nearly half a million of his own people — it’s reprehensible and cannot be justified,” then-Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said at the time.
During her 2020 presidential run, Gabbard declined to label Assad as a war criminal.
“Assad is not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States,” she said on the campaign trail.
Snowden advocacy
Gabbard teamed up with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Trump’s nominee for attorney general, in 2020 on a House resolution calling for charges to be dropped against Edward Snowden, who leaked troves of classified national intelligence material in 2013 and has spent the past decade living in Russia.
During her own presidential run, a year earlier, she discussed the issue during an interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
“If it wasn’t for Snowden, the American people would never have learned the NSA was collecting phone records and spying on Americans,” Gabbard told Rogan. “As president, I will protect whistleblowers who expose threats to our freedom and liberty.”
At the end of Trump’s first term, Gabbard called on him to pardon Snowden.
“Since you’re giving pardons to people, please consider pardoning those who, at great personal sacrifice, exposed the deception and criminality of those in the deep state,” she said in an X post, commenting on another post specifically mentioning Snowden.
Trump has previously called Snowden a “traitor” and “spy who should be executed” before taking office, but in October 2020 suggested he was open to a pardon.
“There are many, many people — it seems to be a split decision — many people think that he should be somehow be treated differently and other people think he did very bad things,” Mr. Trump said during a news conference at the time. “I’m going to take a very good look at it.”
