New York: Donald Trump has appointed Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr to his transition team, days after the two former Democrats endorsed his campaign.
Gabbard is a former congresswoman and military veteran who ran to be the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2020, before distancing herself from the party.
The Trump campaign said Gabbard and Kennedy would serve as honorary transition team co-chairs, along with Trump's sons and running mate JD Vance.
Presidential transition teams kick into action when a candidate is elected. They help select political appointees and set priorities for the incoming administration.
On Monday, Trump welcomed Gabbard, 43, to a stage in Detroit, in the key swing state of Michigan.
Gabbard, who represented Hawaii in Congress from 2013 to 2021, quit the Democratic Party in 2022, complaining of its "wokeness". She appeared alongside Trump to commemorate US service personnel killed in an attack in Afghanistan three years prior, using it as an opportunity to criticize the Biden administration.
Gabbard made frequent criticisms of US military interventionism during her time in Congress.
Appearing at Monday's event in Michigan, Gabbard said she was appealing to Democrats, Republicans and independents alike to pick Trump at the ballot box in November - saying it was a matter of "saving our country and serving the people".
She was the first Hindu member of the US Congress, going on to serve as vice-chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee - before resigning to endorse the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders.
When Gabbard ran for president in 2020, she championed liberal issues like government-run healthcare, free college tuition and gun control.
But Joe Biden became the Democratic nominee that year, and went on to win the presidency. Ms Gabbard endorsed him, but quit the party two years later.
