Trump nominates Gabbard for intelligence chief

If confirmed by the Senate, the former Democrat will oversee the work of the CIA

US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence. A former Democrat, Gabbard joined the Republican Party in 2024 and endorsed Trump for president.

“For over two decades, Tulsi has fought for our country and the freedoms of all Americans,” Trump said in a statement on Wednesday, arguing that Gabbard “has broad support in both parties.”

Trump said that Gabbard “will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our intelligence community, championing our constitutional rights, and securing peace through strength.”

In a post on X, Gabbard thanked Trump “for the opportunity to serve as a member of your cabinet to defend the safety, security and freedom of the American people.”

If confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, Gabbard will oversee the US intelligence community, which includes the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI.

Gabbard, who was stationed in Iraq and Kuwait in the 2000s, was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the National Guard in 2021. She served as US Representatives from Hawaii from 2013 to 2021.

Gabbard stepped down as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 and quit the Democratic Party six years later. “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 and stoke anti-white racism,” she said at the time.

She ran for president in 2020, positioning herself as an anti-war candidate and criticizing the US involvement in the wars in Iraq and Syria.

Trump has long accused the White House and the Democrats of weaponizing federal security agencies against him and his supporters as part of a “political witch hunt.” In 2022, he described the FBI and the Department of Justice as “vicious monsters, controlled by radical-left scoundrels, lawyers and the media, who tell them what to do.”