Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has received the official endorsement of Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman who ran as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020 before distancing herself from the party.
On Monday, Trump welcomed Ms Gabbard, 43, to a stage in Detroit, in the key swing state of Michigan.
Ms Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022, complaining about her “wokeness,” and has since become a regular and outspoken guest on Fox News.
Meanwhile, more than 200 Republicans who served under previous presidents and party leaders have thrown their support behind Trump’s rival, Kamala Harris.
In an open letter, former aides to George HW Bush and George W Bush, as well as senators John McCain and Mitt Romney, said another Trump administration would endanger American democracy.
Ms Gabbard appeared alongside Trump to commemorate US service personnel killed in an attack in Afghanistan three years ago, using the occasion to criticise the Biden administration.
Thirteen U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans were killed in a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
The incident came as US troops were carrying out a chaotic withdrawal from the country and the Taliban were returning to power.
Trump called it a “humiliation” that “triggered the collapse of American credibility and respect around the world.”
He was joined earlier in the day by Ms Gabbard, a military veteran, at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia to pay tribute to American lives lost.
Ms. Gabbard was a frequent critic of U.S. military interventionism during her congressional career from 2013 to 2021.
At Monday’s event in Michigan, Gabbard said she was calling on Democrats, Republicans and independents to vote for Trump in November – saying it was about “saving our country and serving the people.”
His official endorsement of Trump marks the culmination of a remarkable political journey over the past decade that began on the progressive left of the Democratic Party.
She was the first Hindu member of the US Congress, and later served as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee before resigning to support Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
Ms. Gabbard ran for president in 2020, championing liberal issues such as government-run health care, free college tuition and gun control.
But that year, Joe Biden became the Democratic nominee and won the presidency. Two years later, Ms. Gabbard resigned as a Democrat, saying the party had succumbed to a “cowardly mindset.”
In early 2024, she was singing the praises of Mr Biden’s rival, Trump, who will this time compete for the White House against Ms Harris.
She warned of a growing threat to American democracy, saying that danger was posed by the prosecution of Trump by the American left.
In the months that followed, there was even speculation that Ms Gabbard could be Trump’s potential running mate for November – a role that ultimately went to JD Vance.
Since leaving the Democratic Party, she has become a regular contributor to Fox News and has been accused of spreading “Russian propaganda” by Ukrainian officials.
Ms Gabbard’s comments come days after Trump received the endorsement of another Democratic defector, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who last week suspended his independent campaign for the White House.
Leading Democrats quickly rejected Ms Gabbard’s endorsement.
“Rather than focusing on winning the support of hard-working Americans, Trump is more obsessed with winning the support of extremists like Gabbard and RFK Jr. — and they will do nothing but weigh on his sinking campaign,” the party’s rapid response director, Alex Floyd, said in a statement.
