Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard—Trump’s Smartest Pick So Far

I generally support the notion that the military and intelligence community is a place for men and not women. This position has caused other women to look at me with intense scorn, despite the fact that (like me) they have no interest in joining the US military or clandestine agencies. Most certainly have no interest, let alone idea, what our intelligence community exists for.

With that said I can think of no better member of the current Trump camp than Tulsi Gabbard to serve as Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve and has seen combat.

In fact, Gabbard was the first (and thus far only) female combat veteran to run for president. I maintain that having seen combat contributes significantly to Gabbard’s strong anti-interventionist positions – the very positions that make her so fit to serve as Trump’s DNI. Her position also keeps with the long tradition of proud American women standing against foreign wars and intervention.

I would have preferred Gabbard be chosen for Secretary of Defense and originally penned an article championing her as a potential choice. With that said, I am very happy she has been chosen for DNI and I am more-or-less pleased with Peter Hegseth as Trump’s choice for SecDef—more on him in a future piece.

Gabbard, whose mother hails from the Midwest and whose father is of both European and Samoan extraction, has taken consistent positions against regime change wars and has been persistent in her assertion that these wars have constantly ended poorly for the nations that neo-conservatives have insisted on invading and have rarely if ever served to benefit the American people. In an interview Gabbard just uploaded to her YouTube channel she reiterates to Chris Cuomo that the problem with the first Trump administration was the sheer volume of war hawks around him and that as a part of his current transition team, she was working to prevent another neo-conservative camp influencing him.

I am hopeful that with Tulsi Gabbard in the room the militant war hawks Trump has chosen thus far (Marco Rubio and Peter Hegseth) can be subdued. The DNI prepares the presidents daily briefing and by influencing the content of that document she can significantly influence the president’s decision making.

Gabbard is also aware of how these regime change wars affect the flow of migrants into the West. In 2015 Gabbard contradicted the governor of Hawaii (where she served as a state legislator before moving to Congress to represent the state) and came out against accepting Syrian refugees. She explicitly called on the Obama administration to do the humane thing and cease creating new refugees through the continued prosecution of foreign wars. Late in 2015, Gabbard went on to sponsor legislation alongside a Republican to force the Obama administration to cease attempting to overthrow Assad in Syria and she openly stated one of her goals in doing this was to prevent the refugee crisis in Europe from getting worse. When Trump put a refugee ban into place in 2017 Tulsi Gabbard was supportive, but also called on the president to change US foreign policy, abandon regime change wars and thus end many of the reasons for increased refugee flows.

It is not only extant and now former wars that Gabbard has tried to end, though. While in Congress Gabbard made numerous attempts to add amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act in order to prevent the president from starting a war with Iran.

Back to the woman on hand, a concern for nationalists may be Gabbard’s position on Israel, as publicly she tries to portray herself as a friend of the Israeli state. I am not concerned, though. Gabbard has a long track record of criticizing the Israelis for their abhorrent behavior and being a poor ally to the United States. In 2017 Gabbard was one of the few House members who refused to vote to condemn the UN over a resolution that the body passed to highlight the illegality of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank. Gabbard said:

“While I remain concerned about aspects of the U.N. resolution, I share the Obama administration's reservation about the harmful impact Israeli settlement activity has on the prospects for peace."

Gabbard has also critiqued Israel for using live ammunition against unarmed Palestinians, she has acknowledged that support for Israel is largely motivated by the powerful monied lobby that has been created in the United States, and Gabbard has openly supported American’s rights to speak against and boycott Israel.

In my view, Gabbard is a proud American nationalist with deep connections to this country. She hates seeing Americans die in faraway foreign lands and detests the alliances this country has made in the past 60 or so years.

Much as she has critiqued the US alliance with Israel, Gabbard also strongly opposes the US alliance with Saudi Arabia and voted against providing that country with US arms and munitions. Gabbard voted against this aid during the Obama administration and during the first Trump administration, she went on to call for an end to all US aid to the Saudi kingdom, especially over that country’s involvement in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Her foreign policy positions are not the only reason I think that Americans - and especially my fellow American women -  should support Tulsi’s appointment to the office of DNI in the upcoming Trump administration.

Gabbard once co-sponsored legislation that would have entitled Americans to 60 days of paid leave and job protection to spend time with their newborn children or sick family members. Gabbard also supports a form of basic income for women to stay home with their children while the other spouse continues to work. These are two great policies that would give American women much more time with their families and children.

Gabbard supports single-payer healthcare, an expansion of healthcare spending to cover nutrition and reduce the number of Americans with diabetes and has sponsored and voted for numerous bills aimed at making medications cheaper for Americans.

Fun fact: Americans are just 4% of the global population but we generate more than 60% of global pharma revenues. We are price-gauged to no end.

Tulsi has also taken a staunch position in defending women against the left’s transgender onslaught. Gabbard introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to ban men masquerading as women from participating in women’s sports. She has also openly supported several bills to keep LGBT education and non-traditional sexual values out of American schools.

Finally, and most important to the White Papers audience, Tulsi Gabbard is very patriotic on the issue of immigration and the American border. Gabbard essentially predicted that US pressure and intervention in Venezuela would cause a fresh wave of border crossings, and she was correct. As of January 2024, more than 7 million Venezuelans have left their homeland and over half a million have entered the United States illegally and subsequently legalized by the Biden administration.

On the issue of immigration, Tulsi is quoted as saying:

“I don’t support open borders. Without secure borders, we don’t really have a country”

Gabbard also seems to understand that demographic change is about remaking the American nation into something unrecognizable. During a Fox News interview in 2023, Gabbard agreed with Laura Ingraham that the US government is purposefully importing endless waves of illegal immigrants to change the demographic character of the country and electorate.

Ingraham Angle, September 15, 2023

I would like to see a Director of National Intelligence Gabbard who can work toward winding down the US’ remaining conflicts, reign in our support for Israel and other terror states, and prevent any further wars from breaking out. Hopefully, she can be a voice of reason on immigration, women’s issues, and social and economic reforms the American people desperately need.

Support our mission to take on more writers and contributors:

Zelle: whitepapersinstitute@protonmail.com

Buy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/wppi

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/wppi

Snail Mail: White Papers Policy, PO Box 192, Hancock, MD 21750