Gabbard’s language is that of the old left, holding up the U.S. government as obsessed with unwisely projecting its influence, often for the sake of monied interests ― and,
she asserts, in secretive risky ways ― while neglecting its own people at home. It’
s a mode that echoes the kind of anti-elite talk that Trump built his campaign around while he lied about his past position on the invasion of Iraq. (Why have politicians of both parties gotten Americans trapped in these far-away places?)
And it connects seamlessly to another Trump-style view: a deep skepticism of foreigners, particularly Muslims. Gabbard has
voted to make it harder for refugees from Iraq and Syria to enter the U.S.,
courted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite his links to anti-Muslim violence that killed hundreds, and spent years as a Fox News darling for her willingness
to claim President
Barack Obama was making Americans less safe by supporting Arab rebels in Syria and not using the phrase “radical Islam.” (Obama aides and many experts warn that language risks implying a problem inherent in a religion followed by 1.6 billion people; Gabbard and Trump argue the language is essential to explain the rise of groups like the Islamic State.)