Donald Trump has chosen former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence.

Gabbard, a former Democrat, joined the Republican Party in 2024 and endorsed Trump for president.

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

RT reports: 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, she will oversee the US intelligence community, which includes the NSA, CIA, and 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 antiwar candidate and criticizing US involvement in the wars in Iraq and Syria.