Donald Trump has added former White House hopefuls Robert F Kennedy jnr and Tulsi Gabbard to his transition team if he wins the US presidential election in November, his campaign said on Tuesday.
Mr Kennedy and Ms Gabbard hail from outside the Republican Party sphere where the former president draws most of his support.
“As president Trump’s broad coalition of supporters and endorsers expands across partisan lines, we are proud that Robert F Kennedy jnr and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team,” Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement.
Mr Kennedy, (70), an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist and descendant of a Democratic political dynasty, was running as an independent presidential candidate until he suspended his campaign last week and endorsed Mr Trump. He joined the race for the White House as a Democratic challenger to Joe Biden before switching to run as an independent.
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A former Democratic congresswoman, Ms Gabbard ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. She left the party in 2022 to become an independent. Increasingly critical of the Biden administration, she is now popular among conservatives, frequently appearing as a guest on far-right TV and radio shows.
In an interview posted on X on Monday, Mr Kennedy told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson he had been asked to join Mr Trump’s transition team “to help pick the people who will be running the government”.
In exchange for endorsing Mr Trump, Mr Kennedy is hoping for a job in a potential Trump administration, a source said.
Strategists have said it was unclear how Mr Kennedy’s endorsement would help Trump, who is in a tight contest with Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris.
Voter interest in Mr Kennedy waned this summer as Mr Trump survived an assassination attempt and Mr Biden passed the campaign torch to Ms Harris. – Reuters
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