Trump Picks ‘Favorite of the Russians’ Tulsi Gabbard for Intel Chief

US President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he intends to appoint Tulsi Gabbard, former congresswoman from Hawaii, as the US national director of intelligence

Gabbard, a former Democrat who campaigned across the country with Trump, has long taken positions in which she has accused Washington insiders and the military-industrial complex of starting wars for its own benefit.

She has also been a vocal critic of the US support for Ukraine under US President Joe Biden’s administration since the February 2022 full-scale invasion, repeatedly calling on a return to a peace deal floated in March 2022 in Istanbul, which would have effectively given Russian President Vladimir Putin control of a neutralized and demilitarized Ukrainian state.

Years before the full-scale invasion, Gabbard had publicly doubted the intelligence community, which she is now named to head, after it concluded that Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad carried out a chemical attack that killed dozens.

Gabbard went to Syria to meet Assad, saying she was seeking peace. She also publicly criticized Trump in his first term for ordering a strike in Baghdad that killed top Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, saying Trump carried out an “illegal and unconstitutional act of war.”

Gabbard, 43, deployed as a soldier in Iraq and ran in the presidential primary in 2020 as a Democrat.

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The announcement comes with the promise of further support and follows criticism within Australia of the government’s slowness to act.

Hillary Clinton at the time, speaking on a podcast, referred to her as “the favorite of the Russians” – albeit without actually naming her. Clinton suggested the Russians were “grooming” the candidate with support from social media bots and pro-Moscow talking points.

Gabbard voiced outrage with Clinton’s office, which later explained that the former secretary of state meant that Moscow was boosting Gabbard to siphon votes from more traditional Democrats.

When asked if the former secretary of state was referring to Gabbard in her comment, Clinton spokesperson Nick Merrill told CNN, “If the nesting doll fits...”

Despite having been a Democrat, Gabbard has become popular over the years among Trump supporters thanks largely to her regular appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Rogan, the most popular podcaster in the US with 5.59 billion total views, endorsed Gabbard for president in 2020. He endorsed Trump in 2024.

In an October 2022 appearance, Gabbard told Rogan: “Our leaders have pushed us to the brink of nuclear war.”

At times she struck a tone of justification in describing Putin’s warning of striking first with nuclear weapons: “He’s boxed into a corner, he’s lost face, he’s in a place where he may feel like he has nothing else to lose…”

On April 4 of this year, Gabbard appeared on the Lex Fridman podcast, another hugely popular source of information for young American males. The episode garnered more than a million views.

Gabbard claimed: “All the statements and comments that the Biden-Harris administration has made from the beginning of this [Russo-Ukrainian] war essentially point to their objective being basically to destroy Russia.”

Trump said in a statement nominating her: “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.”

On a panel of CNN commentators, Jamie Metz, former US National Security Council staffer during the Bill Clinton administration, said: “Tulsi Gabbard has never worked in intelligence. She has no real background for this job, and she has been a booster in many ways for Putin, Assad, [Turkish President Tayyip Recep] Erdogan, people who are not at all friendly with the United States.”

Metz said it was “concerning” that US allies would now be reluctant to share intelligence with the US, “where there are people in the central nodes of our government who are so sympathetic to our adversaries.”

The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior cabinet-level position created in 2004 that oversees all intelligence agencies in the US, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). The two agencies report directly to the DNI and have been indispensable in helping Ukraine hold off Russia’s full-scale invasion.