Former Democratic presidential candidate and Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) recently met with former President Donald Trump to discuss how he would manage his Department of Defense if elected president again in November, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Gabbard and Trump — along with top Trump advisors — have discussed how a new Trump administration would want its Defense Department to operate, according to a report in the Washington Post Wednesday, citing sources close to the discussions.
Trump has reminded advisers and donors that one of his biggest mistakes during his first term was personnel choices that stood in the way of his policy agenda. The talks with Gabbard are part of a broader conversation about how Trump would run the Pentagon differently if voters elect him to a second term.
Tulsi Gabbard is open to having conversations with Donald Trump on becoming the VP as her mission in life is to serve.
What do you think? pic.twitter.com/k3WRWHLUHi
— Chester Tam (@islantstudio) February 8, 2024
Gabbard is one of the women on a shortlist of names Trump is considering for his running mate in 2024. His pick will be a headline-making event and could affect the eventual outcome of the electoral college in November.
Gabbard recently went on the Fox News show “Fox and Friends” and told viewers she would be “open” to a “conversation” about working for Trump as his next vice president. The recent direct talks with Trump and his top advisory team suggest the campaign may tap the former congresswoman for vice president or Secretary of Defense.
Although she once ran for president as a Democrat and caucused with Democrats as a delegate to Congress, Gabbard has foreign policy views that align with those of Trump. She has said, for example, she “isn’t afraid to call out the elite cabal of permanent Washington and the military-industrial complex and their propagandists in the mainstream media.”
Tulsi Gabbard:
"Democrats absurdly claim they’re trying to stop illegal immigration and it’s Trump’s fault. It's the old playbook of them working with mainstream propaganda media, to repeat things that are not true over and over again, hoping it sticks." pic.twitter.com/bzkoY4fs7y
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) February 11, 2024
“For too long, establishment leaders from both parties have sought to enrich themselves, play games, and build up their power while ignoring and even enabling the suffering of millions of hard-working Americans,” Gabbard said at an event in Arizona in 2022 where she spoke to endorse the Trump-backed Republican nominee for governor.
She has declared that the Democratic Party of today is “now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.”
