Tulsi Gabbard endorses Donald Trump for president.

 

Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard. Fox News/AP.

Former 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has endorsed Donald Trump for president. Fox News. Gabbard, a former Congresswoman from Hawaii and a veteran who served in Iraq, ran as a presidential candidate in 2020. She endorsed Trump after an event commemorating the victims of the 2021 Afghanistan ISIS attack that killed 13 US troops. Gabbard praised Trump for being an anti-war candidate that cares about the troops and said that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris brought the world closer to World War III. Gabbard is a second notable former Democrat that has endorsed Trump since the DNC convention after RFK Jr. 

My Comment:

Anyone who has been paying attention should not be surprised about this. Gabbard wasn't really recruited by the Republicans, she was pushed into their arms. The powers that be never forgave her for the shellacking she gave Kamala Harris at the Democratic debates in the 2020 election cycle. If it hadn't been for the fact that Joe Biden wanted a DEI candidate for his VP role, Kamala Harris would no longer have a career in politics. It was that much of a domination and is a reason why Harris doesn't seem to want to debate Donald Trump. 

Harris ended her Presidential campaign after that and after that the claws came out for Tulsi Gabbard. She was called a pro-Russia stooge and was made persona non-grata in the Democratic Party. It basically ended her political career, but it was because she hurt one of the "powers that be" golden children. Gabbard rebranded herself after that from being the one Democrat that Republicans like to being basically a Republican. She often appeared on Fox News and was BFF's with Tucker Carlson. So it's no surprise that she's endorsing Donald Trump, it would have been more surprising if she didn't at this point, and there was zero chance that she was ever voting for Harris. 

I personally have mixed feelings about Gabbard. I think she's a decent person but I do have substantial disagreements with her on policy. Though she has moved to the right, I still don't trust her on gun rights. I agree with her on other things, most notably opposition to the Ukraine war, but she's better than most Democrats mostly in comparison. 

Will the endorsement change much? There might be a few people that will change their minds about voting for Trump, but those folks will be a rounding error. What Gabbard will accomplish is similar to what RFK Jr. will accomplish and that's making the Trump campaign look more reasonable and centrist than the Harris campaign. It's an example of Trump trying to widen the base and take a few votes away from Harris from people that feel pushed out by the Democrats and their actions. 

Still, I doubt this will move the needle much. Like I said, Gabbard is a known factor and it would have been surprising if she didn't endorse Trump. It's not like the RFK Jr. endorsement that came out of nowhere and actually did move the needle. 

I think the real asset for Trump is the fact that Gabbard would be a great person for debate prep. Gabbard is smart and knows how to get under the skin of Kamala Harris. And she's be a good person to practice debating against, though it's not like Trump doesn't have experience in debating. He's ended the careers of Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton and now Joe Biden during debates and I think he's got a good shot of doing so against Harris, especially if Gabbard helps him. 

The timing of this was pretty good as well. Gabbard is a good person to attack the Harris campaign over the Afghanistan withdrawal. She served in Iraq and, much like JD Vance, she cares about her fellow veterans. And it's a very good thing to remind people of one of the darkest days of the Biden-Harris administration and the failure that was the withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

Will their be more Democrat defectors? It's possible. There has to be some Democrats out there that are upset with the way the party is acting and may decide that Trump is the lesser of two evils. Given how deeply into a purity spiral the Democrats are and how they are self immolating over the Israel-Gaza war, it's possible that Trump could peel off a few more big names before November, though I am also not holding my breath. On the other hand, the Democrats have burned their bridges with a lot of people in their own party and this is part of the consequences. 

Finally, I have to point out that that I am pleased that the Republican party is now an anti-war party. There are a few neocons left but it's clear that most of the big players are now against the war in Ukraine. I am sure a major reason why Gabbard endorsed Trump is because they both agree with each other about the war in Ukraine and how it needs to end. They are putting their differences aside to accomplish more together and that is a positive thing.