United States Presidential Election | Trump gathers former Democrats in his inner circle: One of them is Hawaiian Hindu and war veteran Tulsi Gabbard

of the United States Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has taken prominent former Democratic politicians into the very core of his inner circle. He has promised Came to Gabbard and For Robert F. Kennedy Jr influential positions in their possible future administration.

They have both made political careers in the Democratic Party, but have since turned pro-Trump.

Trump appointed Gabbard and Kennedy to his so-called transition team in late August. The task of the team is to help Trump in shaping this policy, as well as in choosing people for the posts of the new administration, if Trump wins the presidential election.

“I’ve been asked to join the transition team and help pick the people who are going to run the government,” Kennedy said in an interview published on the X service. in the interview in August.

The change in Trump’s attitude towards Kennedy has been big. Just half a year ago, Trump declared his own on the Truth Social platformthat Kennedy, who was competing for the presidency uncommitted at the time, is “the most radical left-wing candidate, by far” and “a great admirer of the new green scam and other economy-killing disasters.”

Now the voice on the clock has changed so that Kennedy and Gabbard are the honorary chairmen of the transition team. In addition to them, only Trump’s sons have the same title Donald Trump younger and With Eric Trump and vice presidential candidate By JD Vancesaid the person who reported on the appointment in August The New York Times.

Previously Kennedy, 70, who ran for president first from the ranks of the Democrats and then as an independent, was in the public eye a lot during his own election campaign until he gave up his candidacy in August and announced his support for Trump.

Gabbard, 43, on the other hand, has been less prominent during this election. He has also made quite a distance in the field of politics from left to right.

Gabbard climbed to the top of national politics in 2013, when she was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat from Hawaii. He was in the House of Representatives until 2021.

At the time, Gabbard was quite to the left. For example, he supported the leftist Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election, says the news channel CNN.

In the next election, Gabbard offered herself for the top job. He sought the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination for the 2020 election, but gave up and gave his support For Joe Biden.

For however, Gabbard became disillusioned with the leadership of the Democratic Party. He resigned from the party in 2022, CNN tells.

Gabbard’s view on, for example, the war in Ukraine follows the views of Trump and his supporters. For example, Gabbard has criticized the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and showed understanding towards Russia.

When Russia started its full-scale war of conquest in Ukraine in February 2022, it was largely the fault of the United States and NATO, according to Gabbard.

“This war and suffering could have been easily avoided if the Biden administration/NATO had simply recognized Russia’s legitimate security concerns about Ukraine joining NATO, which would have meant US/NATO troops right on Russia’s border,” Gabbard wrote In the X servicewhich was called Twitter at the time.

War seems to be an important theme for Gabbard. In a speech at the conservative CPAC conference last February in speech he criticized the “Washington elite” in harsh words.

“We must stop the bipartisan warmongers in Washington who keep beating their war drums and who have pushed us to the brink of World War III and nuclear disaster,” he said.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump appeared together with former Democratic politician Tulsi Gabbard at a campaign event in Wisconsin on August 29. Picture: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP

Gabbard has a military background himself. He served in the Army National Guard from 2003 to 2020, until he transferred to the reserve. According to CNN, he is a lieutenant colonel in the military rank of the reserve. During his time in the Guard, he completed one command in the Iraq war, he says The New Yorker -leaf.

The National Guard serves part-time, so Gabbard also did other things during those years, for example, studied for a bachelor’s degree in business administration and sat on the Honolulu city council for a couple of years, it is said United States Congress website. In addition, he has, among other things, founded a film production company and worked as an assistant to a Hawaiian senator, reports CNN.

Gabbard became a politician early on. He was elected to the Hawaii State House of Representatives at the age of 21 in 2002. He served until 2004.

Gabbard was born in American Samoa, but his family moved to Hawaii when he was two years old.

Gabbard has also said that he is a Hindu. of The New York Times according to him, he is the child of a Roman Catholic father and a Hindu mother. In an email interview conducted in 2012, he said that he mainly identifies as a Hindu and that he admires Mahatma Gandhi.

Gabbard is also an avid surfer, reports for example in The New Yorker.