Trump may try to change that, however, based on suggestions contained in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s plan for a second Trump presidency. In the chapter on the intelligence community, the document suggests that the ODNI should be the only agency that writes the daily intelligence briefing for Trump and should have full oversight of the entire intelligence community budget.
Since Gabbard was announced as an ODNI nominee, many Democratic lawmakers have criticized the decision, pointing to Gabbard’s lack of experience in the intelligence community and her questionable views on Russia and Syria.
Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, member of the Virginia House Intelligence Committee, wrote in X She was “horrified by Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination,” adding: “Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar-al Assad and Vladimir Putin.”
Gabbard has a long history of espousing controversial views on foreign policy, as well as being involved in conspiracy theories.
Gabbard has been linked for years to an extremist branch of Hare Krishna, called the Science of Identity Foundation. The group, of which some former members They have described it as a sectis led by Chris Butler, who is worshiped by some of his followers as a deity and whom Gabbard has described as her “guru”.
He gained a level of national notoriety in 2017 when he met in person with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during what his office called a “fact-finding” mission to the Middle East. He later raised doubts about US intelligence agencies’ assessment that the Assad regime had used chemical weapons against civilians, calling US airstrikes on Syrian targets in response to chemical attacks “reckless and short-sighted”.
Upon leaving the Democratic Party in 2022, he criticized it using phrases reminiscent of the coded language used by QAnon followers, labeling his former party as an “elitist cabal of warmongers” driven by a “cowardly wokeness.”
In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Gabbard made comments that some interpreted as justifying Putin’s decision, stating that if the United States had “simply recognized Russia’s legitimate security concerns” regarding Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO, the war could have been avoided.
He also made comments that were used to fuel the Russian-backed conspiracy theory that U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine would be used to launch biological weapons. When Trump announced that Gabbard was his choice for DNI, Russian state television hosts celebrated the news.
In 2022, Gabbard also campaigned for Kari Lake in her unsuccessful race for governor in Arizona. Lake was at the time one of the most vocal proponents of election-denying conspiracy theories about Trump’s 2020 election loss and would spend years claiming, without evidence, that her own loss in 2022 was caused by voter fraud.
Gabbard did not respond to repeated requests for comment about her ties to Willis, but in an interview last April she mentioned the fact that she was visiting the border and making a documentary, although she did not mention Willis’ involvement.
“I just returned last night from spending a few days on the California border. “It’s a part of the border in our country that just hasn’t gotten a lot of attention,” Gabbard told the Perspective by Kelsi Sheren podcast. “I’m putting together a short documentary. I went there and I brought my husband, who is a cinematographer, and some cameras specifically, because most people in America don’t know what’s going on.”