Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has received the official support of Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman who ran for president for the Democrats in 2020 but later distanced herself from the party.

On Monday, Trump welcomed Ms. Gabbard, 43, to a stage in Detroit, the key swing state of Michigan.

Ms. Gabbard left the Democratic Party in 2022 after complaining about its “woke” mentality. Since then, she has been a regular and outspoken guest on Fox News.

She appeared with Trump to commemorate the American service members who died in an attack in Afghanistan three years earlier, using it as an opportunity to criticize the Biden administration.

Thirteen US servicemen and more than 100 Afghans were killed in the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

The incident occurred as US troops were chaotically withdrawing from the country and the Taliban were returning to power.

Trump called it an “embarrassment” that “eroded American credibility and respect around the world.”

Earlier in the day, he was joined by Mrs. Gabbard, a war veteran, at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia to remember the American lives lost.

During her career in Congress (2013-2021), Ms. Gabbard frequently criticized US military interventionism.

At her rally in Michigan on Monday, Ms. Gabbard said she was calling on Democrats, Republicans and independents to elect Mr. Trump at the ballot box in November, saying it was “about saving our country and serving the people.”

Her official endorsement of Trump marks the culmination of a remarkable political journey over the past decade, which began on the progressive left of the Democratic Party.

She was the first Hindu member of the U.S. Congress and went on to serve as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, before stepping down to support the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders.

Ms. Gabbard ran for president in 2020, championing liberal issues such as government-run health care, free college tuition and gun control.

But Joe Biden became the Democratic nominee that year and won the presidency. Two years later, Ms. Gabbard resigned as a Democrat, saying the party had been destroyed by “crazy wokeness.”

In early 2024, she praised Biden’s rival Trump, who is this time competing with Kamala Harris for the White House.

She warned of a growing threat to American democracy, which she said was caused by the American left’s persecution of Trump.

In the months that followed, there was even speculation that Ms. Gabbard might be considered as Trump’s potential running mate for November. The role eventually went to J.D. Vance.

Since leaving the Democratic Party, she has become a regular contributor to Fox News and has been accused by officials in Ukraine of spreading “Russian propaganda.”

Ms. Gabbard’s comments came days after Mr. Trump received the support 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 support.

“Rather than focusing on winning the support of hardworking Americans, Trump is more fixated on winning the support of extremists like Gabbard and RFK Jr. — and they will do nothing more than shore up his sinking ship of a campaign,” Alex Floyd, the party’s director of rapid response, said in a statement.