Trump appointment & a Pacific killing
New US intel boss Tulsi Gabbard’s Sāmoa’s warrior women tragedy
A gruesome and mostly unexplained murder earlier this year darkens the personality of one of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet appointments, that of American Sāmoa born Tulsi Gabbard who has been nominated as director of national intelligence (DNI).
It adds to an air of pathos in Trump’s cabinet after his nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr, 70, to be health and human services boss, despite his role in the deaths of 83 Sāmoan children in a measles epidemic he helped stoke. Gabbard endorsed Trump earlier this year, and her support quickly made her popular among Trump’s supporters. Often appearing alongside RFK Jr, Gabbard represented what Trump argued was his appeal across the political spectrum.
Gabbard, 43, had no role in the May 26 murder of her only aunt, Caroline Sinavaiana Gabbard, 78. She was killed with a hammer and a knife in Vaivase-Uta in Apia, Sāmoa.
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