Trump may want to change that, however, based on proposals contained in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for Trump’s second presidency. In the chapter on the intelligence community, the document suggests that ODNI should be the sole agency that documents Trump’s daily intelligence briefing and should fully oversee the budget of the entire intelligence community.
Since Gabbard was announced as the ODNI nominee, many Democratic lawmakers have criticized the decision, citing Gabbard’s lack of experience in the intelligence community and her questionable views on Russia and Syria.
Abigail Spanberger, a member of the House Intelligence Committee from Virginia, wrote on X that she was “sad about the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard,” adding: “Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she trades in conspiracy theories and good news. up to dictators like Bashar-al Assad and Vladimir Putin.”
Gabbard has a long history of embracing controversial views on foreign policy and being linked to conspiracy theories.
Gabbard has for years been linked to a dangerous offshoot of Hare Krishna, called the Science of Identity Foundation. The group, which some former members have described as a cult, is led by Chris Butler, who is worshiped by some of his followers as a god and whom Gabbard describes as his “guru”.
He achieved a level of national outrage in 2017 when he met in person with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during what his office called a “truth-finding” in the Middle East. He later expressed doubts about the assessment of the US intelligence agencies that the Assad regime used chemical weapons against civilians, and called the US airstrikes against Syrian targets in response to the chemical attacks “reckless and short-sighted.”
When he left the Democratic Party in 2022, he denounced it using words reminiscent of the coded language used by QAnon followers, calling his former party “a different group of warmongers” driven by a “cowardly awakening.”
In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Gabbard noted that some interpreted it as justifying Putin’s decision, saying that if the US had “just acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns” regarding Ukraine’s desire to join NATO, war could have been avoided.
He also made comments that were used to promote a Russian-backed conspiracy theory that US-funded biolabs in Ukraine would be used to launch biological weapons. When Trump announced that Gabbard had been nominated for DNI, Russian TV presenters celebrated the news.
In 2022 Gabbard again campaigned for Kari Lake in her unsuccessful run for governor in Arizona. At the time, Lake was one of the most vocal proponents of anti-election theories about Trump’s 2020 election loss and would spend years claiming, without evidence, that his 2022 loss was due to election fraud.
Gabbard did not respond to repeated requests for comment about his links to Willis, but in an interview last April, he said he had visited the border and created the document — though he did not mention Willis’ involvement.
“I just got back last night from a few days at the California border. It’s a part of our country’s border that has been neglected,” Gabbard told the newspaper Kelsi Sheren Perspective a podcast. “I’m putting together a short documentary. I went there and brought my husband, who is a movie producer, and a few cameras especially, because most Americans don’t know what’s going on.”
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