Tulsi Gabbard

Tul­si Gab­bard (born April 12, 1981) is an Amer­i­can politi­cian and mil­i­tary offi­cer who has served as a lieu­tenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve since 2021. She rep­re­sent­ed Hawaii’s 2nd con­gres­sion­al dis­trict in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 2013 to 2021, becom­ing the first Hin­du and first Amer­i­can Samoan mem­ber of Con­gress. Gabbard’s mil­i­tary ser­vice includes deploy­ments to Iraq and Kuwait with the Hawaii Army Nation­al Guard. After an ini­tial polit­i­cal career as a Demo­c­rat, she left the par­ty in 2022, cit­ing ide­o­log­i­cal dif­fer­ences, and endorsed Don­ald Trump in 2024. In Novem­ber 2024, Pres­i­dent-elect Trump nom­i­nat­ed her for the posi­tion of Direc­tor of Nation­al Intel­li­gence, a role that over­sees the nation’s intel­li­gence agen­cies and serves as the president’s prin­ci­pal intel­li­gence advi­sor. Her posi­tions on Rus­sia and the Ukraine war have been sub­ject to a great deal of crit­i­cism as “par­rot­ing” Russ­ian talk points, and she is said to be “the dar­ling of Russ­ian State media.”

Sources:

Asso­ci­at­ed Press

New Y0rk Times