5 Things to Know About Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's Pick for Director of National Intelligence

WASHINGTON (AP) President-elect Donald Trump has nominated former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence, a powerful post that sits atop the nation's spy agencies and acts as the president's top adviser in matters of intelligence.

READ MORE: Trump picks Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence

Gabbard is a veteran who has served for more than two decades but lacks the typical intelligence experience of past officials. She left the Democratic Party in 2022 and supported Trump earlier this year, becoming popular among his supporters.

Here are some things to know about Gabbard.

She was the first Hindu elected to Congress

Gabbard, 43, was born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa, raised in Hawaii and spent a year of her childhood in the Philippines. She was first elected at age 21 to the Hawaii House of Representatives, but had to leave after one term when her National Guard unit deployed to Iraq.

She was later elected to Congress to represent Hawaii. As the first Hindu member of the House, Gabbard took the oath with her hand on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu devotional work. She was also the first American Samoan elected to Congress.

READ MORE: Congresswoman Gabbard unexpectedly visits Syria

During her four terms in the House, she became known for speaking out against her party's leadership. Her early support of Senator Bernie Sanders' Democratic primary in 2016 made her a popular figure in progressive politics nationally.

Gabbard is married to cinematographer Abraham Williams. His father, Mike Gabbard, is a state senator who was first elected as a Republican but switched parties to become a Democrat.

She ran for president then left her party

Gabbard sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020 based on a progressive agenda and her opposition to U.S. involvement in foreign military conflicts.

Citing her military experience, she argued that America's wars in the Middle East had destabilized the region, made the United States less secure and cost thousands of American lives. She criticized her own party for not opposing wars. During a primary debate, she criticized then-Sen. Kamala Harris has a record as a prosecutor.

Gabbard later withdrew from the race and supported the eventual winner, President Joe Biden.

READ MORE: Tulsi Gabbard ends her 2020 presidential campaign

Two years later, she left the Democratic Party to become an independent, claiming that her former party was dominated by an elitist cabal of warmongers and woke ideologues. She went on to campaign for several high-profile Republicans, become a Fox News contributor and start a podcast.

The Democratic Party today is unrecognizable from the party I joined 20 years ago,” she said to explain her decision.

She's a star in Trump world

Gabbard endorsed Trump earlier this year, and her support quickly made her popular among Trump supporters.

Often appearing alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination before switching to an independent candidacy and then ultimately supporting Trump Gabbard represented what Trump said was his appeal across the political spectrum.

Gabbard helped Trump prepare for his own debate against Harris this year. In October, while arguing with Trump at a rally in North Carolina, she announced that she was officially becoming a Republican, calling the current Democratic Party completely unrecognizable from the one she had been a member of.

READ MORE: By nominating close ally Gaetz, Trump shows he values ​​loyalty and retribution

Trump gave Gabbard and Kennedy roles in his presidential transition, potentially giving them the influence to help staff his administration and shape the policies the federal bureaucracy would pursue if he returned to the White House.

She's a veteran, but not an intelligence insider

Gabbard served in the National Guard for more than two decades and was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait.

She received a Combat Medical Badge in 2005 for her participation in combat operations under hostile enemy fire in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III, the Hawaii National Guard said.

Unlike previous administrators, she has not held any leadership position in government. She served for two years on the House Homeland Security Committee.

READ MORE: Trump returns to Washington with promise to shake up the federal government

The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 after serving for several years in several high-level national security and intelligence positions. Haines was the first woman to hold this position.

She will oversee Trump's possible intelligence overhaul

Trump has said he wants to overhaul the nation's intelligence services, a sector of the federal government he has long viewed with suspicion and distrust. The president-elect has accused U.S. intelligence agencies of seeking to undermine his first administration as well as his campaigns.

He also characterized the intelligence community as part of the deep state, his term for thousands of officials who work in a long list of government agencies and whom Trump has never considered sufficiently loyal.

READ MORE: Trump picks John Ratcliffe as CIA director. Here's what you need to know

We will remove every corrupt actor from our national security and intelligence apparatus, and there are many of them, Trump said in 2023 while laying out his priorities for a second term. Ministries and agencies that have been militarized will be completely overhauled.

The director's office was created in 2004 as part of a series of changes to U.S. intelligence services following the September 11, 2001, attacks. Lawmakers hoped the new office would prevent service failures intelligence by streamlining inter-institutional cooperation.

The office played a key role in the government's efforts to identify and expose efforts by Russia, China and Iran to spread false and misleading claims about voting and democracy ahead of last week's U.S. election . Other divisions focus on cyber threats, counterterrorism and counterintelligence.

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