Former Republican presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena on August 23, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona.
- Former President Donald Trump has added his onetime campaign rival Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to his presidential transition team.
- That team would make staffing and policy decisions if Trump, the Republican nominee, beats Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November presidential election.
- Both Kennedy and Gabbard endorsed Trump within the past week.
Former President Donald Trump has added his onetime campaign rival Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to his presidential transition team, a spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
Both Kennedy and Gabbard endorsed Trump in the past week in his race against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
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"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," Trump campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes said in a statement to CNBC.
"We look forward to having their powerful voices on the team as we work to restore America's greatness," Hughes said.
The transition team would make staffing and policy decisions if Trump beats Harris in the Nov. 5 presidential election. The New York Times first reported that the Republican nominee planned to tap Kennedy and Gabbard for the team.
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Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign on Friday. Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 cycle and left the party in 2022, has reportedly been helping Trump prepare for a debate against Harris.
RFK Jr.'s embrace of Trump came just a few months after both men had excoriated each other on the campaign trail. Trump had accused the Kennedy family scion of being a "Radical Left Lunatic," while the then-third-party candidate had assailed Trump as "unhinged."
It was not immediately clear what specific roles Kennedy and Gabbard would play on the transition team.
"I've been asked to go on to the transition team you know to help pick the people who will be running the government," Kennedy said in a recent interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
"And I'm looking forward to that."
Gabbard did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
The two new additions join a team that already includes Trump's adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.
Vance said Tuesday afternoon that he would like to see Kennedy advising Trump on whom to bring into his administration.
"I think the role that I'd love to see RFK play" is "advising the president on making critical selections for who's going to go in the government, who's going to have an important advisory role," Vance told reporters after a campaign event in Big Rapids, Michigan.
"I mean, this is what the transition team fundamentally does," Vance added.
Linda McMahon, the former president and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and the former head of the Small Business Administration under Trump, has also been named to the transition team.
Howard Lutnick, the chairman and CEO of the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is also on the transition team.
