(LifeSiteNews) — Former Democrats Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard will be helping shape the potential next Trump administration, with the former president and current Republican nominee announcing their addition to his transition team.
Kennedy, an outlier member of one of the Democrats’ most prestigious families, and Gabbard, a former House member from Hawaii, both endorsed Trump in recent days, following longstanding and highly-publicized breaks from their former party over issues such as free speech, medical freedom, and foreign policy.
The New York Post reports that Trump has announced both figures will be joining his presidential transition team, which is responsible for preparing a president-elect’s incoming administration. Both will reportedly campaign for Trump in battleground states.
“Expect both RFK Jr. and Tulsi to be very active on the campaign trail for Trump over the next two months. These weren’t just fleeting endorsements, they’re both fully on the team and will be utilized in battleground states regularly” to build opposition to Democrat nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’s “disastrous and authoritarian policies,” a source close to the campaign told the paper.
The transition team was previously known to include running mate JD Vance, Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr., former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO and Small Business Administration administrator Linda McMahon, and investment executive Howard Lutnick.
In addition to their campaign work, the Post notes that the group “is responsible for vetting a future administration, establishing a policy plan and handling a White House rollout so the president would be ready to govern on day one.”
It is that last responsibility that has raised concern among those already wary of how conservative a second Trump presidency would be, in light of his repeated turns against pro-life policy and intensive repudiation of Project 2025, an initiative originally meant to help Trump more effectively advance conservative goals and provide him with more reliable staff.
While Kennedy and Gabbard have earned conservative praise for breaking with leftists on several issues, both remain avowed liberals. Throughout his own ill-fated presidential campaign, Kennedy remained supportive of abortion-on-demand (though eventually reaching a viability cutoff), affirmative action, and reparations for slavery, and did not disavow his past as a far-left environmental activist.
Gabbard, meanwhile, voted in lockstep with the abortion and LGBT lobbies for most of her House tenure, advocated codifying abortion “rights” in federal law prior to the third trimester, favored decriminalizing prostitution, and endorsed socialist Bernie Sanders for president in 2016.
So far, Trump’s efforts to court voters who don’t traditionally support Republicans have not had the desired effect. Polling aggregations by RealClearPolitics and RaceToTheWH show that Harris continues to maintain the lead that began soon after replacing President Joe Biden as Democrats’ presumptive nominee, both in the national popular vote and the Electoral College.
Throughout the race, Harris has worked to carefully manage her public appearances; Trump supporters hope that forcing her into unscripted moments in the upcoming presidential debate will turn things around.