U.S. Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a campaign rally on August 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona, U.S.A.
| Photo Credit: AP

Donald Trump has added former White House hopefuls Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to his transition team if he wins November’s U.S. presidential election, his campaign said on Tuesday (August 27, 2024).

Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Gabbard hail from outside the Republican party sphere where former President Trump 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 Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard have been added to the Trump/Vance Transition team,” Mr. Trump campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes said in a statement.

Mr. Kennedy, 70, an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist and descendent 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 Biden before switching to run as an independent.

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 Mr. Biden and his 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 super PAC supporting Mr. Kennedy told Reuters last week.

Strategists have said it was unclear how Mr. Kennedy’s endorsement would help Mr. 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.