Trump isn't the only one in his incoming administration with an affinity for strongmen

This is an adapted excerpt from the Nov. 23 episode of "Ayman."

If confirmed, Donald Trump’s pick for the next director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, would gain oversight of 18 intelligence agencies. Gabbard would provide national intelligence to the president and officials within the White House and the Pentagon. She would also oversee coordination between U.S. intelligence communities and those of foreign governments. And, so far, the response in Washington to that potential reality has been utter panic.

To understand why that is, we have to start at the beginning of her political career, as a Democratic congresswoman representing Hawaii. When she was first elected in 2012, Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran, was a staunch critic of U.S. foreign policy, particularly its military intervention. 

She went on to become a surrogate for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign before eventually running for the Democratic nomination herself in 2020, where she ran on a noninterventionist foreign policy platform. 

“The United States needs to get out of the regime-change business,” Gabbard told NPR at the time. “The United States needs to stop trying to act as the policeman of the world … Unfortunately, there are very few examples of this justified use of military force. I think it’s very telling that the last time Congress officially declared war was World War II.”

However, one justified use of military force, according to Gabbard, was military action against terrorists. She told a Hawaiian newspaper, just a few years prior, “When it comes to the war against terrorists, I’m a hawk. When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I’m a dove.” 

As you know, Gabbard was not the Democratic nominee for president in 2020. And after that loss, she joined Fox News as a contributor. It’s there where she fully transformed into a MAGA warrior. 

Still, she waited to officially join the Republican Party until this year and formally endorsed Trump for president in August. Gabbard soon joined Trump at a rally and offered praise for his diplomacy. “He exercised the courage that we expect from our commander-in-chief,” Gabbard told the crowd. “In exhausting all measures of diplomacy, having the courage to meet with adversaries, dictators, allies and partners alike in the pursuit of peace, seeing war as a last resort.” 

Having the courage to meet with dictators. That line highlights Gabbard’s own gravitational pull toward strongmen around the globe. That includes Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, who’s been accused of killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. In 2015, she publicly called for the U.S. to allow him to remain in power, and two years later she traveled to Syria to meet with him for a so-called “fact-finding mission.” Gabbard even challenged U.S. intelligence that found Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons. 

Then there’s Gabbard’s well-documented closeness with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During her 2020 presidential campaign, she was a favorite among the Russian propaganda machine. According to NBC News, less than a month into her run, there were at least 20 Gabbard-related stories on three major Moscow-based English-language websites supportive of the Russian government.

In 2022, she used her platform to amplify a Russian talking point that the U.S. had somehow provoked Putin to invade Ukraine. Gabbard posted on X, “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if the Biden admin slash NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO.”

Don’t forget Gabbard’s ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hindu nationalism. Gabbard has received support from U.S. chapters of an India-based network of Hindu nationalist advocacy organizations that are working to turn India into a Hindu nationalist state. 

These groups, which are part of an ideological web that orbits around a collective called RSS, have increasingly stoked violence against Muslims and other religious minorities in India. They’ve also lobbied foreign governments to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in that country. 

Lastly, there’s Gabbard’s unflinching support of the Israeli campaign in Gaza. Gabbard has said Western leaders have failed to defeat this supposed threat because “they refuse to acknowledge that it must be defeated ideologically and militarily.” She also has been a vocal critic of those protesting the war in Gaza.

These are not the alliances or the values of an American leader with a commitment to democracy. Gabbard’s winding career shows her consistently flocking to whoever has amassed the most political power, regardless of what it takes to get and stay there. And that is what makes Gabbard an incredibly dangerous pick for America’s next director of national intelligence. 

Allison Detzel contributed.