Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s choice to be the country’s top intelligence official, began meeting with key lawmakers this week as the president-elect’s other Cabinet picks returned to the Capitol for additional grilling from senators.
Gabbard, viewed as one of Trump’s most controversial nominees, faces scrutiny from lawmakers to become the director of national intelligence for her sympathetic views toward Russia and Syria’s newly exiled president, Bashar al-Assad.
Gabbard’s bid has been largely overshadowed by other embattled picks, including Trump’s choice to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, whom Trump reaffirmed his support for Friday in an interview with NBC News.
Hegseth currently lacks the votes to be confirmed in the Republican-led Senate after allegations about his treatment of women and consumption of alcohol surfaced.
Despite the numbers, Trump is keeping Hegseth afloat in part to shield Gabbard from standing in the spotlight on her own, according to two sources with knowledge of the transition team’s thinking.
A Trump transition official disputed this arrangement.
“This is completely false,” the official said in a statement. “President Trump has nominated highly-respected leaders who will serve our nation with excellence. The President and the Transition team are supportive of all our nominees and expect all of them to be confirmed.”
With a fresh boost from Trump, Hegseth is expected to return to the Capitol for more meetings at the same time Gabbard begins her confirmation process in earnest.
Her path toward confirmation is littered with roadblocks. Gabbard, a combat veteran and former congresswoman from Hawaii — a Democrat-turned-independent-turned-Republican — will face several senators who know her well from her time in the House, where her views on authoritarian regimes alarmed her colleagues.
After she unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, Gabbard became an outspoken personality on conservative media before she aligned herself closely with Trump and his third campaign for office.
She became a fixture at Trump’s rallies leading up to the November election and a star among his MAGA base, who view her as a disrupter of the so-called deep state Trump vows to destroy.
Gabbard faces opposition from Senate Republicans not only for her controversial foreign policy views, but also for her recent political evolution, according to three people familiar with internal discussions who say some conservatives do not trust her.
“Whatever her partisan alignment, there is no question in President Trump’s orbit that Gabbard is 100% aligned with the MAGA movement and the America First agenda of President Trump. He and his team remain committed to her successful nomination,” the transition official told NBC News.
Trump himself said he has confidence in Gabbard in an exclusive interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, calling her “a very respected person.”
Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidante who backs the choice of Gabbard, said, “I have every reason to believe that the president will go all out in his efforts to get Tulsi Gabbard confirmed.”
“Let those senators who may oppose her put forth their combat record of military service to the country before they question her patriotism or loyalty,” he added.
The transition official, who is familiar with Trump’s thinking and was granted anonymity to speak candidly, also said he was willing to expend political capital to fight for the team he wants, citing his win in November.
“These nominations represent his approach to governing,” this person said. “The president won a decisive victory and had a mandate from the American people. He is committed to fulfilling the mandate with an administration and team that are each individually and as a group representative of the agenda he put forth and that the American people voted for.”
“The president-elect is unburdened by having to run for re-election, so he will be spending his political capital on implementing his agenda, and that starts with getting these nominees confirmed,” the person added.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a Trump ally and the incoming Intelligence Committee chairman, is a defense hawk who broke with Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance in supporting continuous military aid to Ukraine. Gabbard will face Cotton and others on the 17-member panel beginning next week.
While Republicans have been focused on Trump’s other contentious picks — such as Hegseth and, before he dropped out, Matt Gaetz — those who believe Gabbard is unqualified to be the country’s top spy are unlikely to stay silent, two sources told NBC News.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has little to lose after a tumultuous relationship with Trump, helped sink Gaetz’s eight-day bid to be attorney general. Similarly, McConnell would be hard-pressed to allow Gabbard’s efforts to move forward, despite so far having kept his comments about Trump’s nominees private, one of the sources said.
