“The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela,” said Tulsi Gabbard. “Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders – so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.”

That was in 2019, when Gabbard was still a rebellious anti-war Democrat. Nobody then could have predicted that, six years on, she would be Donald Trump’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI). But in 2024, Gabbard jumped aboard the Trump Train and became a key player, alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in the big realignment of that year.

Yet now, she finds herself isolated. Her dovish foreign policy views make her a bad fit for an administration committed to the “Donroe Doctrine” – and, asserting itself through violence in Latin America. The latest reports are that, since the summer, Gabbard has been frozen out of all the high-level secret discussions concerning Venezuela, chiefly because her views do not accord with the administration’s. As Delta Force swooped into seize President Nicolás Maduro last week, Gabbard was on a beach holiday in Hawaii, where she grew up. The joke among administration officials is that Tulsi’s “DNI” title stands for “Do Not Invite.” That’s not exactly a great reputation for someone who is supposedly in charge of the world’s most powerful intelligence network. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is driving Trump’s Latin America policy, is rumored to regard Gabbard as unreliable. And the President reportedly did not think she needed to be part of planning the Venezuela mission.

Naturally, the administration denies any rift. Vice President J.D. Vance, one of Gabbard’s allies in the administration, called the story “completely false” and a State Department official insisted that Gabbard, Rubio and Trump were working “together in lockstep.” But that’s clearly not the case. Trump seems to prefer dealing with CIA Director John Ratcliffe when it comes to vital intelligence. In June, when he wanted to bomb Iran, the Commander-in-Chief found Gabbard to be a nuisance. She spent weeks providing intelligence that contradicted the preferred Israeli narrative that Iran was mere days away from nuclear-armed power status. “I don’t care what she says,” Trump told reporters. Then, after the US Air Force pulverized the Iranian uranium enrichment plant at Fordow, the agencies under Gabbard’s control provided (and, disastrously, leaked) assessments that suggested Tehran’s nuclear capacities had not, in fact, been annihilated.

Surely, the Washington gossips assumed, she would have to resign? But in the topsy-turvy world of Trump, humiliation is often just a prelude to elevation. Rather than falling out with Trump, Gabbard redoubled her efforts to dig out evidence about what she calls the “treasonous conspiracy” that is Russia, Russia, Russiagate. She published documents suggesting that Barack Obama, the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic establishment colluded and conspired with the intelligence community as part of a “years-long coup” against a legitimately elected Republican president. This thrilled the Donald. “Where’s Tulsi?” he called out at a White House event. “She’s, like, hotter than everybody. She’s the hottest one in the room.”

Now, however, she seems out of favor once more – ignored and mistreated by the President’s inner circle. It’s also said that she has become a kind of scapegoat for people inside the administration who want to attack Vance, but dare not. But those in the Trump circle who are cheering on her possible resignation may regret their glee. As an outside figure, a tough radical-minded woman who has seen deep inside the belly of the beast and who is quite happy saying what she thinks on podcasts and TV shows, Gabbard could prove troublesome for the Trump administration, which has been losing its grip on its fractious coalition. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump acolyte-turned-enemy, told The View this week that she would not join the Democrats, though she might abandon the Republican party.

Yet Tulsi was, like RFK Jr., a Democrat before and she could, potentially, become one again. She’s a surfer, famously. And she understands how to ride the political waves. Gabbard 2028, anyone? Only on the blue ticket this time…