Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, is expected to join the soon-to-be commander in chief at Saturday’s Army-Navy gridiron game.
Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the US Army reserve, is one of several Trump allies set to watch longstanding rivals West Point and Annapolis face off on the field in Landover, Md., during the annual gridiron game, NewsNation’s Libbey Dean reported.
Pete Hegseth, a former US Army National Guard officer who is Trump’s current pick for defense secretary, is also set to attend the game, as is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former US Navy lawyer, who reportedly was being considered as Trump’s Plan B nominee for overseeing the Pentagon.
President-elect JD Vance also invited Daniel Penny, recently acquitted in the chokehold death of homeless man Jordan Neely, as a personal guest to watch the game from Trump’s suite.
Gabbard, a former Democratic Hawaiian congresswoman, received Trump’s nod in November to oversee the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies after switching to the Republican Party in late October and endorsing the once and future president.
Like Hegseth, Gabbard has received heightened scrutiny as she tours Capitol Hill and meets with senators to shore up support ahead of any confirmation hearings for the cabinet position.
Some Republicans initially voiced reservations about Trump’s top spy pick, including over her trip to Syria in 2017, where she met with the nation’s then-sitting dictator Bashar al-Assad, but several have shown increasing support for the incoming president’s DNI choice.
“We talked about her Syria visit, you know, talked about some of the things with Snowden and some of her previous comments,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters after his meeting with Gabbard.
Gabbard also received a boost in clinching the votes for her confirmation after an open letter was published Monday with signatures from over 250 veterans — among them current members of Congress and former federal officials.
