Former president Donald Trump announced Tuesday he has added Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to his transition team, giving key roles to two former Democrats who endorsed his comeback campaign in recent days.
“As President Trump’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands across partisan lines, we are proud that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team,” Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement. “We look forward to having their powerful voices on the team [as] we work to restore America’s greatness.”
The New York Times first reported the news.
The announcement comes as Trump is looking to display support from beyond the Republican Party with a little over two months until the election. Democrats sought to show cross-party support at their national convention last week in Chicago, which featured speeches by former congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan (R).
The news about the transition team also arrived a day after an interview was released in which Kennedy said he had been recruited to help with preparing for a possible second Trump term.
“We’re working on policy issues together,” Kennedy told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “I’ve been asked to come onto the transition team, to help pick the people who will be running the government.”
Trump first announced the transition team on Aug. 16, tapping as co-chairs the Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, administrator of the Small Business Administration under Trump. The honorary co-chairs are Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and two of his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
Kennedy ended his independent presidential campaign on Friday and endorsed Trump, appearing alongside him at an evening rally in the Phoenix area. The Washington Post previously reported that Kennedy had talked with Trump about a possible role in his administration if he wins the November election. Trump has publicly said he would consider it.
Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, backed Trump during a joint appearance Monday in Detroit. She ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 but left the party two years later and has since grown more politically aligned with Trump.
Gabbard is set to campaign with Trump on Thursday in Wisconsin.
Kennedy and Gabbard are both known for splitting sharply with their former party and staking out unorthodox positions. Kennedy has long expressed skepticism of vaccines, while Gabbard has been a vocal opponent of U.S. military interventions overseas, opposing U.S. aid to Ukraine for its war against Russia. She spoke with Trump and his advisers this year about foreign policy and how to run the Pentagon if he wins in November, The Washington Post reported.
Gabbard drew bipartisan criticism for meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2017.
Republicans have criticized both Kennedy and Gabbard over the years. Trump himself spent weeks bashing Kennedy earlier in the presidential contest, calling him a “Radical Left Lunatic” in May.
The Democratic National Committee seized on Kennedy’s comments to Carlson about being asked to help with Trump’s transition. DNC adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement that the idea of Kennedy “being anywhere near a second Trump admin. should terrify you.”
“In the four days since he endorsed Trump, RFK Jr. has spent his time tweeting about chemtrails and dodging questions about illegally sawing off a dead whale’s head,” Cahill said. “Normal candidates would run from a surrogate like this, but desperate men do desperate things.”
Meryl Kornfield and Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.
