Washington – Newly elected President Donald Trump announced this on Wednesday he has chosen Former Representative Tulsi Gabbard will serve as his director of national intelligence. Gabbard represented Hawaii in Congress as a Democrat from 2013 to 2021, and unsuccessfully sought the party's presidential nomination in 2020.
Trump announced Gabbard as his choice in a statement, saying, “For more than two decades, Tulsi has fought for our country and the freedoms of all Americans.” “As a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, he enjoys broad support in both parties – he is now a proud Republican!”
The president-elect said Gabbard will “bring to our Intelligence Community the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career, championing our constitutional rights and achieving peace through strength.”
This position requires Senate confirmation.
Gabbard has no experience in intelligence and opposes United States intervention in the war in Ukraine.
In February 2022, as soon as Russia was preparing to attack Ukrainegabbard took to social media Blaming the Biden administration, he wrote, “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if the Biden Admin/NATO had acknowledged Russia's legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine becoming a NATO member, meaning US/NATO forces would have been on Russia's border.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in 2019 that she The belief that the Russians were “grooming” What appears to be a reference to Jo Gabbard, the Democratic presidential primary contender, is set to become a third-party candidate. Gabbard sued Clinton for defamation in 2020, but dropped the suit soon after it was filed.
In 2019, Gabbard also expressed opposition to US involvement in the Syrian civil war and said that the country's leader, Bashar al-Assad, “is not an enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States ” gabbard met Assad in 2017, which she defended at the time as a “fact-finding mission”, but in 2019 she described him as a “brutal dictator”.
Gabbard served in the Army National Guard for more than 20 years and was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. She was elected as a Democrat to represent Hawaii in Congress in 2012 and served four terms. During her tenure in the House, Gabbard served on the Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Foreign Affairs committees.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, he opted not to seek another term in the House made a long bid For the Democratic presidential nomination.
gabbard Announced in 2022 That she would leave the Democratic Party, claiming that it is “under the complete control of an elite cabal of warmongers” who are motivated by “consciousness.”
She endorsed Trump in his bid for the White House in August and was tapped to serve As co-chairman of his transition team with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was also a lifelong Democrat until running for president as an independent and then supporting Trump.
Trump has spent several days following him Election for second term Filling his Cabinet and senior staff positions at the White House. These are among the people the President-elect has used for his national security team. Representative Michael Waltz of Florida for the National Security Advisor, Former Representative John Ratcliffe For the CIA director and Fox News host pete hegseth For the Secretary of Defense.
Gabbard's selection to join Trump's administration continues a shift in political allegiance for the former Democrat, who supported Bernie Sanders, an independent Vermont senator, during the 2016 presidential campaign and Step out of your role To do so as Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.