Robert F. Kennedy. Matt Gaetz. Piet Hegseth. Donald Trump’s flurry of announcements this week unveiling his planned Cabinet for a second term has drawn stunned reactions within the federal government. In the intelligence community, alarm has focused on Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be the next director of National Intelligence.

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, has no background in intelligence and a history of making statements about countries like Russia and Syria that have raised questions about her judgment. If Trump has his way, Gabbard will be tasked with overseeing the nation’s 16 other intelligence agencies, as well as some of the country’s most secretive national security programs.

“We’re all reeling,” said a current intelligence official who has worked in multiple administrations.

Intelligence analysts are most concerned that Gabbard, in the role of director of national intelligence, could be motivated to censor intelligence conclusions critical of Russia and cut off funding for potentially fruitful investigations. Some intelligence officials are privately considering whether to resign if Gabbard becomes their new boss.

The Director of National Intelligence is a position created in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack to ensure that the U.S. national security apparatus was working together and sharing information on the most critical threats. The position typically requires confirmation by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which in the past has reviewed the nominee’s financial disclosures and an FBI background check. These assessments are conducted to ensure that a DNI nominee does not have large outstanding debts or connections to foreign governments that could compromise them in coordinating the work of thousands of intelligence officials at the FBI, CIA, NSA and other agencies.

Gabbard’s background is strikingly different from that of current Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes, who has a decades-long career in intelligence. Haynes previously served as deputy director of the CIA in the Obama administration and was a senior member of Obama’s National Security Council.

Gabbard has little to no intelligence experience. In her eight years in Congress, she never served on the House Intelligence Committee, but was assigned to committees on the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security.

Gabbard emerged as a national figure in 2012, when she became the first Hindu, first American Samoan and one of the first female combat veterans elected to the chamber. Before joining Congress, Gabbard deployed to Iraq in 2004 as part of a Hawaii Army National Guard medical unit and is currently a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Over the past decade, Gabbard has stood out for her foreign policy positions. She has long been skeptical of U.S. intelligence analysis and has taken public policy positions that reflect Russian propaganda.

During his 2017 conference, Gabbard met with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad after the US severed diplomatic ties with the country over its bloody crackdown on his own people. Russia has long supported Assad and has supplied troops and weapons to support Assad’s government during Syria’s 13-year civil war. Gabbard said the US should not support opposition fighters in the country who were assisted by US intelligence services.

Later that year, after the Syrian army attacked civilians with sarin and chlorine in the town of Ltamenah in northern Syria, Gabbard reiterated Russia’s denial that Assad was behind a chemical weapons attack. A United Nations investigation later concluded that the Syrian air force had dropped the chemicals.

Weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Gabbard posted a video embracing a debunked conspiracy theory that alleged pathogens could be leaking from biolabs in Ukraine, a theory put forward by Russia as part of its propaganda effort to push for a ceasefire. Then-Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Gabbard had embraced “real Russian propaganda,” calling it “treasonous.” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Gabbard was “parroting fake Russian propaganda.”

That was not the first time Gabbard was accused of trying to advance Russian interests. In 2019, Gabbard launched a long-shot presidential bid that received favorable coverage from Russian news and propaganda sites. Hillary Clinton suggested that the Russians are “preparing” a Democrat to run as a third-party candidate and help Trump win re-election. It was widely believed that Clinton was referring to Gabbard, who accused Clinton of trying to “destroy” her reputation.

Two years ago, Gabbard announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, which she labeled as “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.” Last month, she announced that she was a Republican at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina.

Gabbard has not always supported Trump. She criticized Trump’s decision in 2015 to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, which was supported by the Obama administration, Iran and Russia, as well as China, France, Germany and the UK. In 2020, Gabbard criticized Trump’s order to kill Iranian General Qassim Soleimani, who led Iran’s proxy militia program in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and Yemen. Gabbard said at the time that Trump had violated the Constitution by eliminating another country’s top military commander without congressional approval.