In key ways, Tulsi Gabbard’s professional experience makes her ideally suited to serve in the second Trump administration.

She is a military veteran and former congresswoman who is comfortable speaking in public and with the media. Gabbard is one of the few women appointed to the Trump administration so far, and a woman of color in a party not known for racial and ethnic diversity.

Gabbard became the first Hindu member of Congress when she was elected to represent Hawaii in 2012 and took the oath of office with his hand on the Bhagavad Gita.

But Gabbard, 43, also has significant baggage, particularly her support for autocratic leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

The former congresswoman has also been dogged by her longstanding ties to the Science of Identity Foundation and its founder, Chris Butler. The Identity Science Foundation is an offshoot of Hare Krishna that former members have described as a cult.

Within minutes of Gabbard’s nomination being announced, national news outlets such as CNN predicted that her choice and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s pick to be U.S. Attorney General would be set up. major confirmation battles.

The position for which Trump nominated her, director of national intelligencerequires Senate confirmation. The Director leads the US intelligence community, which oversees and directs the implementation of the National Intelligence Program.

The Director serves as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council on national security issues.

Democrats are already mobilizing against Gabbard’s nomination. The Democratic National Committee issued a press release Wednesday saying Trump’s nomination of Gabbard “puts Americans at risk,” citing news stories about her ties to Al-Assad and affinity for Russian talking points.

Asked about Gabbard’s nomination Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, emphasized the importance of the House’s “advise and consent” role in confirming presidential nominees.

“These are extraordinarily serious jobs,” Warner said. “I have a lot of questions.”

And while Republicans will control the White House and both houses of Congress in January, the Senate has 53 Republicans and 46 Democrats and one independent, meaning Gabbard can afford few GOP defections. Vice President-elect JD Vance may be called upon to cast the tie-breaking vote.

New to the GOP

Gabbard only joined the Republican Party last month after endorsing Donald Trump for president in August. Just two years ago, Gabbard was a Democrat before becoming an independent.

To many Democrats, Gabbard is an ambitious, opportunist. She was first interviewed by Trump for a possible role in his first administration after his surprise election in 2016.

In December 2019, Gabbard was the only Democrat to vote “present”which amounts to an abstention in the House’s decision to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for his attempts to get Ukraine to investigate Biden.

While Trump praised Gabbard in a statement Wednesday as someone who “has broad support” from both political parties, she did poorly in her run for president as a Democrat in 2020 and has been a harsh critic of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016 and Kamala Harris this year.

Gabbard Joe Biden claimed after abandoning his own campaign for president in 2020, but also opposed many of his administration’s policies, particularly its support for Ukraine.

A rising star

Gabbard’s career in politics has been meteoric. She was elected to the Hawaii Legislature at age 21, but enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2004. Gabbard, now a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve, has been deployed to war zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Two years later, she was a legislative assistant to US Senator Daniel Akaka, a Democrat from Hawaii. She then had a brief stint on the nonpartisan Honolulu City Council.

Gabbard then served eight years in Congress representing Hawaii, where she served on the Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Foreign Affairs committees.

Gabbard was noted for being an outspoken critic of Hawaii-born President Barack Obama’s handling of conflicts in the Middle East, including his own. refusal to describe certain groups as “Islamic terrorists”. Gabbard angered colleagues on both sides of the aisle when she made a secret trip to Syria to meet with Assad, who at the time had been accused of committing war crimes against his own people.

In 2019, during Gabbard’s presidential bid, Clinton likened her to a “Russian asset,” something that prompted a harsh rebuke from Gabbard, along with a defamation lawsuit that in the end it went nowhere.

Religious ties

In the early years of her political career, local media reported that Gabbard and her family were prominent figures in the Science of Identity Foundation, which has a history of supporting anti-gay rhetoric. But it didn’t seem to hurt her at the polls.

During her time in Congress, the national media largely ignored Gabbard’s faith — except a long profile in The New Yorker detailing her ties to Butler, someone Gabbard has identified as a guru but some former followers have characterized as a cult leader.

Her ties to Butler continued during the presidential campaign. Gabbard spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with companies affiliated with the organization’s members, including one of its highest-paid consultants who lived in a remote town in Washington State.

Since leaving Congress, Gabbard has been openly skeptical of US support for Ukraine and has even faced criticism for sharing Russian-backed conspiracy theories. proved to be baselessabout US funding of the country’s biological weapons labs.

Hawaii State Representative Gene Ward said Gabbard’s appointment is a proud moment for Hawaii because the state hasn’t had many people in high office. Ward himself served for five years under the second Bush administration at the United States Agency for International Development.

“I think he’s going to do a good job,” said Ward, a Republican. “She’s got her head screwed on. She was always precocious in a way, like a mover and shaker. And there are enough checks and balances within the intelligence community, if you will, to make sure the course is clean.”

Ward added that the main reason Gabbard was selected is her loyalty to Trump.

Neal Milner, a former University of Hawaii political science professor and Civil Beat columnist, agreed. But Milner said Gabbard is not qualified to be director of national intelligence.

“She certainly doesn’t have the experience,” Milner said, adding that the appointment will make ordinary professionals in the intelligence community “go nuts. He rewards her for her loyalty. I gave her a position that will probably be above her salary level.”

Democratic Gov. Josh Green was somewhat more enthusiastic about the appointment.

“I’ve known Tulsi for a very long time and I hope she can bring some aloha to the new administration,” he said in a comment on social media platform X. “This will be an era that really tests our humanity and our availability to treat vulnerable people with compassion.”